Bowl: OC.158-1946

Current Location: Gallery 33

Maker(s)

Entities

Description

Fritware painted in five colours in or on a white glaze and gilded

Buff fritware, wheel thrown, coated in an opaque white, crazed glaze with slip to create relief effect. Painted in the glaze in blue, turquoise and purple and red, black with gold leaf gilding over the glaze.
Shape: hemispherical bowl on a low, wide foot ring
Interior: the rim is gilded with small regular relief bosses. On the neck, a frieze containing blue Arabic script interspersed with turquoise leaves and red dots all separated by blue roundels containing wavey lines. In the roundel, a horseman wearing a turquoise tunic, with a quiver and arrows hanging from his belt, rides a blue horse with red ears and hooves; all of which are outlined in black with red and gold highlights and discreet areas of relief. In the background, scrolling vegetation, on which birds are perched, is depicted in relief with gilding and red outlines.
Exterior: on the rim a frieze of gilded diamonds on a turquoise background are outlined in red. On the body, lobbed diamond cartouches contain a turquoise dot that is frequently gilded and outlined in red. Glaze runs over the foot ring unevenly with turquoise colouration on the extremity, the underside of the foot ring is coloured turquoise.

Notes

History note: Oscar Raphael Bequest

Legal notes

Oscar Raphel Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 9 cm
Weight: 422 g
Width: 21 cm

Relative size of this object

What does this represent?

Relative size of this object is displayed using code inspired by Good Form and Spectacle's work on the British Museum's Waddeson Bequest website and their dimension drawer. They chose a tennis ball to represent a universally sized object, from which you could envisage the size of an object.

Place(s) associated

Kashan ⪼ Iran

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1946) by Raphael, Oscar C.

Dating

Late 12th or early 13th century
Circa 1175 CE - Circa 1220 CE

School or Style

Seljuk

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Interior composed of pigment ( blue, turquoise and purple (in-glaze), red and black (over-glaze)) gold leaf ( in discreet areas) glaze ( white) slip
Exterior Body composed of gold leaf ( in discreet areas) pigment ( turquoise (in-glaze), red, black (overglaze)) glaze ( white, runs over the exterior foot ring unevenly with turquoise colouration on the extremity)
Rim Diameter 21 cm
Base Diameter 8.8 cm

Materials used in production

Fritware

Techniques used in production

Throwing : Buff fritware, wheel thrown, coated in an opaque white, crazed glaze with slip to create relief effect. Painted in the glaze in blue, turquoise and purple and red, black with gold leaf gilding over the glaze

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: a frieze containing blue Arabic script interspersed with turquoise leaves and red dots all separated by blue roundels containing wavey lines

Text: alif-lam-dal or kaf
Location: Interior neck
Method of creation: Hand painted in blue
Type: Inscription

Inscription present: rectangular paper label with serrated top and bottom edges

Text: International Exhibition of Persian Art, London 1931 (printed), R 21 (hand written in black)
Location: Exterior base (underside of foot ring)
Method of creation: Printed, hand written in black
Type: Label

Inscription present: square paper label

Text: coat of arms and “City of Manchester Art Gallery” (printed), “5414 / B.H – 196B” and “5367” (hand written, latter crossed through)
Location: Exterior base (underside of foot ring)
Method of creation: Printed (grey), hand written in black
Type: Label

Inscription present: circular paper label