A Kashan black and turquoise bowl with water-weed design, Persia, early 13th century

of truncated conical form with straight rim, on a slightly splayed foot, painted in black under a transparent turquoise alkaline glaze with a central "water-weed" design, the band near the rim with pierced openwork vegetal design a leafy tufts to 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. Plotnik Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2007, p. 106, no. 64.

In good condition, intact, areas of iridescence to surface, notably on exterior and interior, old gallery label: 'Hadji Baba, 642, London', minor pitting to interior, as viewed.
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The water-weed design first appears in Persian underglaze-painted wares in the early thirteenth-century. These wares, decorated using a brush, superseded the earlier and more-labour intensive slip-carved "Silhouette wares". The brush had several advantages over the knife: not only did it speed up the design process, but it also allowed for more fluid and painterly decoration, of which this bowl is a fine example.