Lusterware Bowl

With its simple shape and apparently unassuming decoration, this bowl is the second oldest dated luster-painted vessel known worldwide. The inscriptions it bears illustrate the interesting dynamics between text and figuration, form and usage that characterized some of the most remarkable pottery examples of the Pre-Mongol period. The text in the bowl exhorts to enjoy convivial gatherings possibly as the one depicted. The rhyming quatrain on the rim is attributed to the Afghani poet Sayyid Ashraf Ghaznavi, who died in 556 AH (1160-61 CE). Sayyid Ashraf Ghaznavi was a well-known presence in the Ghaznavid court of Bahram Shah, his poetry so appreciated that one of his couplet ended up inscribed on the coinage of the period. At a later stage of his life, he moved to Baghdad and then travelled between Hamadan and Marv, serving members of the Seljuq court, including the ruler Sultan Sanjar. This bowl is thus an interesting document of the circulation of coeval poetry among different strata of the Persian-speaking societies through different artistic media.

Lustre glazing on ceramic is a two-firing technique with iron, silver, and copper metallic pigments that requires technological skillfulness and artistry. The invention has its roots in Abbasid Mesopotamia and was largely spread in the Mediterranean via Fatimid manufactures. However, Kashan lustrewares became so famed and appreciated for their quality and decorative inventiveness that the word kashi/kashani entered the Arabic and Persian vocabularies to indicate glazed tilework at large.