TWO SHARDS OF COPPER LUSTRE-PAINTED POTTERY BOWLS
Kashan, Iran, 11th - 12th century

TWO SHARDS OF COPPER LUSTRE-PAINTED POTTERY BOWLS
Kashan, Iran, 11th - 12th century

Comprising two Kashan pottery bowl shards, each painted in copper lustre on a white ground, one finely painted in reserve in monumental Kashan style depicting a couple with typical Central Asian 'moon faces' looking at each other, wearing ornate robes and headdresses, a small chequered cypress tree to centre, 10.5cm diam.; and the latter featuring a central roundel divided into eight triangular panels with alternating patterns of interlocking split palmette sprays and repeating wavey lines, the outer concentric band featuring fragments of an inscription in free-flowing naskh script, the base with a stylised image of a deer surrounded by swirls,11.5cm diam.

Lustre pottery was perfected in Kashan during the medieval period and figurative pottery often depicted courtly scenes of pleasure and hunting with poetic verses. The designs combined with a generous use of copper lustre suggest that these shards were probably produced in a 12th-century Kashan kiln (O. Watson, Ceramics From Islamic Lands, 2004).

(Quantity:2)

Dimensions: the largest 11.5cm diam