A stunning footed conical bowl from Iran, probably manufactured in Kashan or Nishapur. The bowl is painted in a brilliant blue colour under a transparent glaze and presents a moulded pseudo script on the cavetto, and an interwoven decorative pattern resembling a star in the centre, which may also be the Star of David, suggesting a link with the Jewish population and making this piece a mysterious and unique artefact.
The present bowl is an example of the technological innovations in ceramic decoration which were established in Persia by the end of the twelfth century. New techniques were developed as ceramics started to be made using a white frit mass instead of red clay, allowing the potter to have a brilliant white ground on which he could apply a decoration such as the present blue glaze. The blue colour of the glaze was obtained using copper as a colourant. Pieces like the one showed here may have been inspired by the blue and white glazed pottery that travelled the Silk Road from Tang Dynasty, China, leading to the development of a new distinctive style which blossomed in Nishapur. Indeed, fritware or stonepaste was invented to produce vessels with a strong white body, which, combined with the tin- glazing on the surface, allowed them to approximate the result of Chinese porcelain. True porcelain was not manufactured in the Islamic world until several centuries later whereas in the meantime the finest Islamic pottery was made of fritware.