Dish, fritware, painted in underglaze blue on white, Iran, Safavid period, 1600-1700

Plate of fritware, with flattened rim and foliated edge, painted in cobalt blue under a clear glaze. It is decorated with a deer and a stork in a central medallion, surrounded by a pine tree, balustrades and a flowering plant growing from rocks. Tthe flattened rim depicts landscapes with islands, trees, birds and flowering plants growing from rocks.

Persian blue and white ceramics were primarily produced during the rule of the Safavid Dynasty in Iran (early 16th Century to early 18th Century). Iranian potters were almost exclusively preoccupied with making wares in the styles of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, some close copies and some more fanciful. Echoes of earlier traditions remained, in particular in the black-under- turquoise colour scheme that dates back in Iran to the end of the 12th Century. Towards the end of the 16th Century there was a widening of interest, that blossomed in the 17th Century to a wide range of styles and techniques in which blue and white played a dominant but not exclusive role.

Design inspired by Chinese Kraak porcelain.

482-1878