Basin with Handles, Minai'i ("enameled") ware

At the center of this flat-bottomed basin is a mounted falconer surrounded by scrolling foliage. The horseman is enclosed by a square, set on point, that is formed of four slightly raised and gilded trefoils linked by knots. Each of the trefoils terminates in an interlaced device that is partially raised and gilded. Four smaller horsemen encircled by scrolling foliage fill the interstices. Along the rim are eight pierced bosses that alternate with a hare chased by a hound, and a long-stemmed blossom and a hound rendered in low relief (probably produced here and throughout by slip trailing) and gilded. On the exterior, much of the decoration covering the sides of the vessel, including pairs of confronted birds, is in low relief and gilded. The two-dimensional ornament is composed of several bands of abstract pattern in light blue, gold, and turquoise on white. The curved, applied handles, which are perhaps more decorative than functional, were originally colored turquoise. All of the gilt decoration appears to have been outlined in red. The applied pierced bosses, the vestigial handles, the raised and gilded decoration, and the motif of the hare and hound chase suggest a link with metalwork, which often served as a source of inspiration for ceramic wares in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Iran.(1) This vessel, however, appears to be modern.(2)

Catalogue entry from Linda Komaroff. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 361.


NOTES:
1. For example, Watson, Oliver. “Pottery and Metal Shapes in Persia in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.” In Pots and Pans: A Colloquium on Precious Metals and Ceramics in the Muslim, Chinese and Graeco-Roman Worlds, Oxford, 1985, edited by Michael Vickers, pp. 205 – 12. Oxford Studies in Islamic Art 3. Oxford, 1986; Tabbaa, Yasser. “Bronze Shapes in Iranian Ceramics of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries.” Muqarnas 4, 1987, pp. 98 – 113. See also Raby, Julian. “Looking for Silver in Clay: A New Perspective on Sāmānid Ceramics.” In Pots and Pans: A Colloquium on Precious Metals and Ceramics in the Muslim, Chinese and Graeco-Roman Worlds, Oxford, 1985, edited by Michael Vickers, pp. 179 – 203. Oxford Studies in Islamic Art 3. Oxford, 1986, p. 181.
2. In October 2009 a sample taken from the handle was subjected to thermoluminescence analysis by Oxford Authentication, Ltd. The report indicates that the object was last fired less than one hundred years ago. Furthermore, the piece appears to have been fabricated from earthenware rather than fritware. These reasons suggest that the vessel was likely made in the early twentieth century. I am grateful to John Hirx, conservator, Objects Conservation department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Wendy Walker, conservator, Objects Conservation department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for their observations.

[Dikran Kelekian]. Acquired by Philip Lehman through Kelekian in 1913.