Lustre-Painted Bowl - LO.647, Origin: Central Asia, Circa: 1100 AD to 1200 AD, Dimensions: 4.75" (12.1cm) high x 10.75" (27.3cm) depth, Collection: Islamic Art, Style: Kashan, Medium: Fritware. Lustre painted large bowl depicting a young couple sitting in a landscape made of swirling foliage. The sides and the everted rim filled with concentric registers of foliate kufic inscription reserved in white over a floral scroll. A similar dish with slight decorative differences is in the Khalili collection, where three figures are shown in a highly stylised landscape. There is a number of similar lustre painted dishes and they all represent an interesting mixture of surviving elements of monumental and some characteristics of the already established miniature style in what is soemtimes called 'large-scale miniature style'. Cfr Grube, Cobalt and Lustre,1995: pl.264, p.234.

Antiquities
Ancient Near East