A BLUE AND WHITE POTTERY QALYAN BASE (WATER PIPE)
Iran, late 19th - early 20th century

Of typical shape with compressed globular body, on a straight circular foot, rising to a flared neck with a circular mouth, on the side a circular hole to fit the smoking pipe's tube, underglaze painted in cobalt blue and black, the Chinese-inspired decoration on the body consisting of natural landscape views by a river with pairs of gazelle or dear amidst bamboo stems, peonies, palms and pines, houses in the distance, the decorative band on the shoulder with a continuous design of Chinese-inspired ru clouds, flowers and leaves on the neck and on the pipe hole, the base with a pseudo-Chinese seal mark, 16.5cm high.

It is interesting to notice that the decoration of this qalyan is not the only element inspired by Chinese export porcelain models; the Iranian potters have here taken a Chinese type of spouted pouring vessel (called kendi) and transformed it into the base of a water-pipe (O. Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, p. 472).