A rare and important Abbasid lustre pottery bowl, Iraq or Tunisia, second half 9th Century

of rounded form with low footring and everted rim, the interior with four diagonal ridges whcih terminate at the rim in cut recesses for pouring liquid, the body decorated in brown and yellow lustre with a quatrefoil design painted in double brown lustre lines about a central square panel enclosing an inner square panel with brown double lines radiating from the centre, the quatrefoil design filled with scrolling and coiling foliage, the spandrels below the rim filled with scale patterns, oblique strokes around the rim, the back with stylised leaves, the base with enamelled marks NY 1095 (in purple) and 7440 (in red)

ex-Nasli Heeramaneck Collection

Published by M. Pézard, La Céramique Archaïque de Perse, 1920, pl. CXXXIII / 2
Published in A.U. Pope, Masterpieces of Persian Art, New York, 1945, p.83, Pl. 46 as "Possession Heeramaneck".
Published in 1400 Years of Islamic Art, 1981, no.79

The foliate scrolls within the interstices of the design bear a close resemblance to foliate motifs on a lustre tile in the Great Mosque of Qairawan, see Georges Marçais, Les Faiences à reflets métalliques de la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan, Paris, 1928, Pl. XXII, no.112.  These tiles, which are mortared into the qibla wall surrounding the mihrab of the Great Mosque, are reputed to have been executed by "a man from Baghdad" and can be dated to around 862 (see R. Ettinghausen and O. Grabar, The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250, New Haven and London, 1987, p.117).

Comparable bowls are to be found in the Museum of the Great Mosque of Qairawan (see Arts of Islam, London 1976, no. 260) and the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection, Chicago (Oya Pancaroglu, Perpetual Glory. Medieval Islamic Ceramics from the Harvey B. Plotnick Collection, Chicago, 2007, no.6).