A large intact Kashan lustre bowl, Persia, circa 1200

of truncated conical form with flaring walls stepped down to a straight vertical foot, painted in lustre, the interior well with a central foliate roundel enclosed by a band of naskhi script in reserve, the cavetto with four roundels each enclosing a flying duck on a sgraffiato lustre ground encircled by calligraphy, linked by decorative kufesque and split-palmette bands, the rim with further naskhi in reserve, the exterior decorated with nine roundels between thick and thin lustre bands, each roundel containing a dot and feathery motif

 

This bowl is a fine example of the ‘Kashan Style’ as defined by Watson 1985, pp.86-109.

Grube writes (unpublished text, 1995): "The principal elements of the decoration - a central medallion floated against the white ground and surrounded by a sequence of bands of various widths and decorations - is a feature frequently encountered in the lustre ware of this period (see Bahrami 1949, Pls. XLI and XLIV, or Grube 1976, nos. 174-176).  The four large drop-shaped medallions along the edge of the bowl are unusual. Each has a small central disc; these are surrounded by a circular inscription written in lustre against the white ground.  Such medallions can be found in the decoration of a number of tall lustre-painted bottles of the period (see Bahrami 1949, Pl. LXVII, see also the related pattern of an interlace band filled with a continuous inscription on the body of another bottle, ibid., Pl. LXXXVII), but it appears to be unrecorded as decoration for a bowl.

There is an abundance of writing on this object. On the inside there are two bands with cursive inscriptions and two with kufic writing, in addition to the four inscriptions in the medallions, and yet another cursive inscription along the edge of the exterior edge of the bowl. ...[The content] consists of a repetition of a single Persian quatrain, the first two lines being quotes sometimes in full, sometimes only in part, and at times in a manner that is practically illegible.  It reads (in Persian):

'Oh my soul! I am dead through the grief of your love, 
I am bound in the eyelashes of your eyes'"

The feathery roundels seen on the exterior of this example are comparable to those found on the lower section of a Kashan jug in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin (Watson 1985, pl.80).