Lot Essay
Two bowls which share the same form and also the unusual impressed knotted motif under the foot, albeit of slightly different form, are in the Khalili Collection (Grube, E. (ed.): Cobalt and Lustre, the First Centuries of Islamic Pottery: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume IX, London, 1994, nos. 122 and 125, pp.126 and 128).
Arthur Lane attributed this kind of pottery to the south-west region of the Caspian Sea, particularly Yastkand and the Garrus district of Kurdistan (Lane, A.: Early Islamic Pottery, London, 1947, p. 26). The decoration on these wares is incised and the glazes usually comprise yellowish, brownish and green colorants. The shape of our bowl can be compared with a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum (see Lane, op.cit., pl. 31B). Both share the same shallow spherical body with a flat rim. This shape is also found in the lustre ceramics produced at Kashan during roughly the same period. The Victoria and Albert Museum piece also comprises, like ours, a rope pattern around its flat rim.
Arthur Lane attributed this kind of pottery to the south-west region of the Caspian Sea, particularly Yastkand and the Garrus district of Kurdistan (Lane, A.: Early Islamic Pottery, London, 1947, p. 26). The decoration on these wares is incised and the glazes usually comprise yellowish, brownish and green colorants. The shape of our bowl can be compared with a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum (see Lane, op.cit., pl. 31B). Both share the same shallow spherical body with a flat rim. This shape is also found in the lustre ceramics produced at Kashan during roughly the same period. The Victoria and Albert Museum piece also comprises, like ours, a rope pattern around its flat rim.