A BAMIYAN MOULDED AND TURQUOISE-GLAZED POTTERY JUG AND A SMALL BOWL Possibly Afghanistan, Eastern Iranian world, 12th - 13th century

A BAMIYAN MOULDED AND TURQUOISE-GLAZED POTTERY JUG AND A SMALL BOWL Possibly Afghanistan, Eastern Iranian world, 12th - 13th century Comprising a jug, of bulbous shape, resting on a short, splayed, unglazed foot, rising to an everted, conical neck, on the side a curved handle with a raised thumb-rest knob, the turquoise-glazed exterior enhanced with elaborate moulded decoration including a wide strapwork band on the neck, lobed cartouches with rosette bouquets around the shoulders, an arabesque frieze around the waist, and a stylised petal band on the base, 10.5cm diam and 19.5cm high; and another moulded small bowl, the cavetto with two felines chasing each other, possibly lions or tigers, and a rosette roundel in the centre, the exterior plain, 12cm diam. and 6.5cm high. Bamiyan fritwares form a long-debated but scantily researched group of ceramics produced in the Medieval Eastern Iranian world. By repute, their production centre has often been linked to Bamiyan (modern-day Afghanistan), and they appear to have been very localised given the lack of similar examples in archaeological contexts at other sites. Their frit fabric tends to be quite fragile and moulded decoration fills every inch of available space, mostly on the exterior of jugs and on the interior of bowls. For a useful comparison, the strapwork frieze on the neck of our jug is very similar to the interior of a bowl in the Al-Sabah Collection (O. Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, 2004, p. 327 and p. 329, cat. M.3).Click here to share: