A rare intact Mamluk pottery bowl, probably Egypt, 14th century

of deep rounded form with slightly inverted rim, on a short foot, decorated in blue and black under a transparent glaze with a slightly greenish cast and cracklure, the interior painted with a band of pseudo-cursive script interrupted by blue oval-shaped cartouches, the centre with a cross-hatched heptagon on a blue ground enclosed within a further concentric polygon with black hatching and blue dots, the exterior with stiff petal panels in blue and black

The form of the bowl with its abbreviated petal panels on the outer walls typically emulates imported Chinese celadon wares which are conspicuously represented amongst the sherd material from Fustat.  Other features of the design are indigenous in origin: the pseudo-cursive script, the metal-derived geometrical designs and the blue and black palette. The decoration is in fact a derivative of the sgraffiato wares produced in abundance at Fustat throughout the fourteenth century (see Atil 1981, p.183 and 184, no.93). For further discussion of Mamluk pottery, see Gibbs 1998-9.