NORTH EAST IRAN, 10TH CENTURY

This bowl belongs to a group of pottery associated with Nishapur, where a relatively simple palette of earthy pigments is used to realise a wide range of complicated and powerful designs. A similar calligraphic motif is repeated on a bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc.no. C.48-1964) while an example in the Khalili collection also has a central roundel of orange strapwork with ivory dots on it (acc.no. POT864, Ernst K. Grube, Cobalt and Lustre: the First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, London, 1994, no.75, p.84). Whilst most examples are organised into four near-identical quarters, what is particularly unusual about ours is the impactful asymmetry of the design.