A Mamluk cobalt blue footed dish, Syria, 14th century

of shallow rounded form on raised stepped conical foot, painted in underglaze cobalt blue with an assymetrical design of intercepting split and pendant palmettes, the rim with kufesque band

inscriptions

al- 'izz

'glory'

The body material is typically Syrian: gritty in texture and chalk-white in colour, quite distinct from the off-white or buff-coloured bodies of the Fustat potteries.  Other characteristics of ceramic production in late thirteenth-/ early fourteenth-century Syria is the blue palette and the use of pseudo-calligraphy as a decorative form.