A KASHAN TURQUOISE-GLAZED POTTERY JUG AND SPRINKLER Kashan, Iran, late 12th - 13th century

A KASHAN TURQUOISE-GLAZED POTTERY JUG AND SPRINKLER Kashan, Iran, late 12th - 13th century Comprising a jug following a popular metal form in all its details, of typical compressed globular shape, resting on a slightly splayed, short, unglazed foot, rising to broad shoulders and a wide conical neck with slightly everted rim, on the side a curved handle with a thumb-rest knob at the top, the neck decorated with an underglaze sgraffiato vegetal scroll, the interior fully glazed in cobalt blue, 11cm diam. and 16.5cm high; and a faceted pyriform bottle, with a wide waist and tapering shoulders, surmounted by a conical neck with a pierced circular top, below the rim a frieze of applied decoration alternating studs and buttons, 15.4cm high. The jug in the present lot shares a degree of similarity with another larger example in the Al-Sabah Collection in Kuwait (O. Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, 2004, p. 315, cat. L.12). The design of both jugs has been inspired by Medieval Iranian metal examples, as the thin small handle and thumb-rest knob suggest. Indeed, the handle would have been quite fragile and not very functional in supporting the jug's weight, once filled with liquid. Furthermore, the sgraffiato vegetal motif incised on the neck is almost identical to the Al-Sabah jug, testifying to the recurrent presence of such patterns in Persian pottery kilns prior to the arrival of the Mongols.Click here to share: