An important mina'i bowl with a falconer on horseback, Persia, Late 12th/early 13th century

of deep round form on a straight foot, composed of fritware painted in lavender, blue, turquoise, red, beige, and black with black outlines on an opaque white glaze, featuring a falconer on horseback, with a band of abstracted calligraphy near the rim and on the exterior

Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics From The Harvey B. Plotnick Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2007.

O. Pancaroglu, Perpetual Glory: Medieval Islamic Ceramics From The Harvey B. Plotnick Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2007, no.69, pp.110-111.

One edge once broken and restored, colours bright, complete and in good overall condition, as viewed.
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This bowl presents a superb example of the mina'i technique and its expressive and painterly characteristics. Mina'i or 'enamelled' wares are believed to have originated at Kashan in the late-twelfth century where the lustre technique was already thriving. This new technique of decorating pottery with enamels in a second firing increased the range of colours available to the potters, and transformed a predominantly monochrome style to a more varied polychrome technique with motifs drawn from contemporary manuscripts and textiles.

The figural representation of horsemen is often used on such wares and notably, the courtly pastime of falconry is portrayed on this bowl. It represents a popular subject in Persian romance and poetry as well as in the miniature paintings that accompanied them. This transference of motifs across media is evident on a comparable bowl in the Al-Sabah Collection, inv. no. LNS 308 C, which features a similar horseman accompanied by winged figures, who seem to refer to an unspecified epic (Watson 2004, p.368, no. Cat.P.3).

A mina'i style bowl with a similar motif can be found in The David Collection, inv. no. Isl.193 (Von Folsach 2001, no.171, p.153).