A Rare Underglaze Vessel in the form of a Mother and Child, Persia, circa 1200

body moulded in the form of a seated mother cradling a child, decorated with black under a turquoise glaze with scrolling tendrils and a band of calligraphy around her upper arms, a double braid to her hair, the headdress forming the mouth of the vase

Figurines represent a significant part of production at Kashan in the late Seljuk period. The subject matter of the figurines is very wide ranging including birds, monkeys, harpies, sphinx. Human figures were also made, amongst them, musicians playing a number of different instruments, horsemen dressed in Turkish military costume and most unusual of all, women suckling an infant from a naked breast. The iconography of the breast-feeding woman is believed to have offered protection during the hazardous periods of childbirth and early infancy. A similar vase in the form of a woman and child, but decorated in lustre, is in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, (see Lane 1957, no.53a).