A rare Umayyad splashware moulded pottery dish

Eastern Mediterranean, possibly Egypt, 8th Century

Footnotes

Provenance
The Collection of Bahram Mirza "Sardar-i-Massoud" (1885-1916), Paris, thence by descent.

The present lot likely belongs to a rare pottery group which features dishes with symmetrical interlacing moulded bands, and which were first discovered during excavations at Samarra and later Susa. An example of a dish from this group decorated in similar yellow and green glazes is in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection (see Ernst J. Grube, Cobalt and Lustre, Oxford, 1994, pp. 22-23, cat. 15). A further example is in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (see Esin Atil, Ceramics from the World of Islam, Washington D.C., 1973, pp.16-17, No. 2). The use of a yellow glaze splashed with green is also found on other pottery from the period, including a pottery ewer sold at Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 5 October 2010, lot 55.

One distinctive characteristic of our dish is its everted rim, which differs from the more common vertical rim present in the afore-mentioned examples. However, everted rims are found on shallow bowls from the period, including an example in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Accession No. 1978.2143). It is possible, therefore, that the present lot is an example of a type of dish which bridges the gap between these bowls and the other vertical rimmed dishes, combining elements from both. An example of a slightly smaller dish decorated in a green glaze which also features an everted rim as in the present lot was sold at Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 6 October 2011, lot 19.