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Lot Essay
The inscription around this bowl reads: man kathura kalamuhu saqtuhu kathura. The sequence of the words however is wrong and the saying should read: man kathura kalamuhu kathura saqtuhu (He who talks too much increases [the possibility of] his fall), a saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad.
A bowl with the identical inscription in the same lettering and with the same central knot was excavated at Nishapur (Charles K. Wilkinson, Nishapur Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1974, no.19, p.98, pl.p.116). The two bowls are certainly from the same pottery and possibly by the same hand. In his discussion of the one found at Nishapur Wilkinson thinks for various reasons that Afrasiyab/Samarkand is a more probable place of manufacture. He notes that a similar but less well executed bowl with a different aphorism was excavated at Samarkand (published by Z. Maysuradze, Keramika Afrasiaba, Tiflis, 1958, pl.VI).
A bowl with the identical inscription in the same lettering and with the same central knot was excavated at Nishapur (Charles K. Wilkinson, Nishapur Pottery of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1974, no.19, p.98, pl.p.116). The two bowls are certainly from the same pottery and possibly by the same hand. In his discussion of the one found at Nishapur Wilkinson thinks for various reasons that Afrasiyab/Samarkand is a more probable place of manufacture. He notes that a similar but less well executed bowl with a different aphorism was excavated at Samarkand (published by Z. Maysuradze, Keramika Afrasiaba, Tiflis, 1958, pl.VI).