This is a superb example of a luster painted Kashan dish, decorated with pseudo calligraphic motifs on the cavetto, while at the centre we can admire the figure of a feline surrounded by vegetative motifs on opaque white background.
Kashan ceramics were made of fritware, a mixture of minerals (namely glass and clay). They were painted over with lustre, which gives the ceramic surface a bright, metallic gleam. Due to its flat base and wide rim, the shape of this echoes the design of a metal vessel. The lustre also suggests the sheen of gold.
Among the most significant contributions from Muslim craftsmen to world ceramics, lustre was not only an expensive technique, but a very difficult one to master. Metal-based pigments and other substances were diluted and carefully applied to pre-glazed pots. These were then fired in special kilns with a ‘reduced’ atmosphere in which carbon monoxide triggered a chemical reaction that permanently fixed the metallic oxides onto the object’s surface, giving it its characteristic sheen.
First used on pottery in ninth-century Iraq, the technique reached Egypt in the 10th century, and then travelled back to Syria and Iran in the 12th century. This splendid stone paste bowl, with overglaze luster-paint on an opaque white glaze, is dated to the 12th century. It can be associated with the city of Kashan in Iran, which emerged as the most prominent centre of lustre production between the 12th and early 14th century.
Although unsigned, the bowl's accomplished design and technical execution make this piece stand out for its technical and stylistic perfection among 13th century Iranian lustreware.