CENTRAL IRAN, EARLY 13TH CENTURY

From the eleventh century, the introduction in Iran of stonepaste, a substance primarily consisting of ground quartz with just enough white clay to ensure sufficient plasticity for shaping, facilitated the manufacture of exceptionally delicate ceramics (Sophie Makariou (ed.), Islamic Art at the Musee du Louvre, Paris, 2012, p.157). While such wares were initially made with a turquoise glaze, by the twelfth century the naturally pale ground was exploited to its fullest through the use of transparent glazes. On the present bowl, the delicate, plain interior accentuates the poetic inscription around the rim and the blue pattern in the centre.

A contemporaneous bowl with the same inscription around the rim is in the collection of Harvey B. Plotnick (Oya Pancaroglu, Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection, New Haven and London, 2007, p.116). A Kashan pierced pottery bowl of comparable size and lay-out, but with a turquoise glaze was sold in these Rooms, 23 October 2007, lot 48.