An early Islamic monochrome moulded pottery Vessel 8th/ 9th Century
£3,000 - £5,000
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Find your local specialistAn early Islamic monochrome moulded pottery Vessel
8th/ 9th Century
8th/ 9th Century
35.5 cm. high
Footnotes
This ewer is from a distinctive group of Medieval Islamic ceramics, a number of which have appeared on the market in recent years, an archetypal example of which was a mihrab tile sold in these rooms (Bonhams, Islamic and Works of Art, 11th October 2000, lot 400). Comparison can also be drawn with a ewer also sold in these rooms (Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 2nd May 2001, lot 304).
Examples of this type of ware have been found in Egypt and Mesopotamia. They are dated to the Umayyad or early Abbasid periods on the basis of a number of inscribed pieces, which comprise a calligraphic style during that period. For examples, see Arthur Lane, Early Islamic Pottery, London, 1947, pl. 3-5; Helen Philon, Early Islamic Ceramics, Ninth to Late Twelfth Centuries, London, 1980, pp. 8-19.
While an attribution of this type to the Central Islamic Lands is generally accepted, there is some evidence that such ceramics were produced to a very high degree of quality in Eastern Iran too. An elaborately moulded bottle inscribed in simple kufic stating that it was made at Gurgan is now in the L.A. Mayer Memorial Foundation, inv. no. C40.69 (Eva Baer, "Jewelled Ceramics from Medieval Islam: A Note on the Ambiguity of Islamic Ornament" in Muqarnas, VI, 1989, pp. 86, pl. 4-5 and p. 93, pl. 17). The style of the inscription is close to that used in manuscripts, papyri and architectural inscriptions of the 7th-9th Centuries, and thus a date to that period seems very plausible. Gurgan was then an important mercantile and administrative city.