A LAJVARDINA BLUE GROUND AND GILT CERAMIC DISH, PERSIA, circa 1300

of shallow open form with everted rim, on a short foot,  the brilliant cobalt-blue ground with black, white and ochre enamel together with gold-leaf, interior with a radiating pattern of gold arabesques outlined in ochre below scrolling cartouches of arabesques, the reverse with a scrolling foliate band

Lajvardina ceramics take their name from the Persian word lajvard meaning "lapis lazuli". It is a term applied mainly to groups of vessels and tiles covered with an intense cobalt-blue as is seen with this example, and then decorated in overglaze enamels. For a discussion of these types of ceramic, and a similar bowl, see Ernst J. Grube, Islamic Pottery of the Eight to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976. p. 256.