A KASHAN LUSTRE POTTERY BOTTLE VASE, PERSIA, EARLY 13TH CENTURY

A Persian pottery bottle vase with compressed globular body resting on a short foot, the narrow tapering neck joined to a wide flaring fluted mouth of tulip form, the body decorated with a golden overglaze lustre, featuring seated figures within palmette frames under a diaper band enclosing arabic inscription in naskh script, the neck with peacock-eye motifs, the tulip mouth decorated with elegant angular Kufic inscriptions.Inscriptions around the mouth in angular interlocked kufic script: " al-'izz wa al-iqbal wa al-sa'ada wa al-salama wa al-ni'ma li-sahebeh". "Glory and Prosperity and Happiness and Well-being and Grace for his owner". Height: 31 cm. PROVENANCE Ex-Swiss private collection, acquired in 1988.Kashan (Persia) was an important centre for lustre ceramic production. Objects from this area are characterized by scrawling inscriptions, usually Persian poetry, and figures. This vase’s elegant design combines arabesques, religious blessings in angular Kufic script. Kashan fritware often depicted scenes of elite leisure activities such as hunting, feasting, and dancing, such activities constituted one component of the medieval Persian conception of courtly enjoyment, called “feasting and fighting” or bazm wa razm. Lustre painting first emerged in Iraq in the 9th century. Used for ceramic decoration, lustre paint was made by compounding metal oxides to create bright yellows and browns. Before the paints’ application, the vessel in question would have already gone through the process of a first firing, through which the ceramic body was hardened. The lustre would have then been applied, followed by a second firing to fix the colour onto the ceramic surface.