Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
Lot 24
A Nishapur calligraphic slip-painted pottery Dish Persia, 10th Century
6 October 2015, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£20,000 - £30,000
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A Nishapur calligraphic slip-painted pottery Dish
Persia, 10th Century
Persia, 10th Century
with slightly curving rim on a short foot, decorated in manganese on a cream ground with a circle motif to the centre, the rim with a band of inscription in kufic
33 cm. diam.
33 cm. diam.
Footnotes
Inscriptions: al-hilah ablagh min al-quwwah, 'Stratagem is more potent than strength'.
This lot is accompanied by a Thermoluminescence Test (Re.S.Artes certificate no. R241512A-6).
Slip-painted calligraphic pottery vessels of this type are amongst the most dramatic works of art created during the Samanid period. According to Arthur Lane, 'their beauty is of the highest intellectual order; they hold the essence of Islam undiluted.' (Early Islamic Pottery, London, 1947, p. 18) The present dish is decorated with a fine thick kufic inscription which was delicately inscribed with a brush before being tidied up at the edges with a palette knife. The red clay, from which the dish is potted, is typical of the type and the white slip ground is used to display the dark calligraphy to its greatest effect.