A lustre-painted bowl with microcosm of the earthly and heavenly spheres
This conical bowl, raised high on an elegant cylindrical foot ring, is a particularly fine and well-preserved example of Kashan lustred wares. Its central well is decorated with a procession of three runner ducks marching in procession above a river with a single fish. The sky or the heavens are indicated above the procession of ducks by four orbs with large dots of lustre pigment. The figures are rendered in white in reserve, with quick strokes of lustre indicate the presence of feathers, fins, and facial features. The animal figures appear against the ‘spiral-incised’ ground that is typical of the group of Kashan lustre-painted wares typically attributed to c. 1200-1220. This example is probably part of the ‘fish and frond’ group described by Robert Mason, due to idiosyncratic features like the register of ‘curled grass’ separating the single fish in the stream from the ducks on land.
