Bowl with Cloudband Motif

This underglaze painted bowl is of a rounded form on a short foot. Both the interior and the exterior are painted with black pigments under a turquoise glaze, a common colour scheme on underglaze painted fritwares (also known as 'Silhouette Wares') during the Timurid period (8th until early 10th century AH/14th until early 16th century CE). Decorated with a repeating cloud band pattern, which covers the entire surface, this bowl is a fine example of so called 'Kubachi wares'. Named after a village in the Caucasus, today in modern-day Russia, these 'Kubachi wares', however, were most probably created in Iran found hanging on the walls of houses in Kubachi. Holes drilled in the foot of every bowl represent characteristic features of these wares.
The cloud band design on glazed pottery bowls from the Timurid period is quite unusual and was adopted from Chinese porcelains; the motif was more common on Timurid textiles, carpets and paintings.