Kalian
ca. 1650-1700 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The designs on Safavid lustreware are purely Iranian, and owe nothing to Chinese designs, so prevalent in underglaze blue painted wares. Potters revived a three-hundred year old Iranian decorative technique in the second half of the Seventeenth century. However, the sources for the designs are found in contemporary manuscript illuminations, some dated about 1675.
This ceramic vessel is the base of water-pipe for smoking tobacco, known as a "kalian". The fashion for smoking tobacco in Iran became fashionable in the 17th century. This base contained water and was fitted with two long metal pipes, one to a cup holding burning tobacco and the other a mouthpiece; the smoke from the tobacco was drawn through the water to cool it. These are also known as hookah, huqqa, qalian, qalyan qaliyan, narghile, shisha and hubble-bubble.
This ceramic vessel is the base of water-pipe for smoking tobacco, known as a "kalian". The fashion for smoking tobacco in Iran became fashionable in the 17th century. This base contained water and was fitted with two long metal pipes, one to a cup holding burning tobacco and the other a mouthpiece; the smoke from the tobacco was drawn through the water to cool it. These are also known as hookah, huqqa, qalian, qalyan qaliyan, narghile, shisha and hubble-bubble.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Fritware, underglaze and lustre decoration |
| Brief description | Kalian (water-pipe base), fritware, cobalt blue ground, glazed, overglaze painted in ruby-coloured lustre; Iran, 1650-1700. |
| Physical description | Water-pipe (kalian) or sprinkler base, fritware, of globular shape, the neck damaged, covered in a cobalt blue ground, glazed and overglaze painted in metallic ruby lustre with birds in trees under palmette and split-palmette borders. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label |
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| Object history | Neck missing, body rivetted. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | The designs on Safavid lustreware are purely Iranian, and owe nothing to Chinese designs, so prevalent in underglaze blue painted wares. Potters revived a three-hundred year old Iranian decorative technique in the second half of the Seventeenth century. However, the sources for the designs are found in contemporary manuscript illuminations, some dated about 1675. This ceramic vessel is the base of water-pipe for smoking tobacco, known as a "kalian". The fashion for smoking tobacco in Iran became fashionable in the 17th century. This base contained water and was fitted with two long metal pipes, one to a cup holding burning tobacco and the other a mouthpiece; the smoke from the tobacco was drawn through the water to cool it. These are also known as hookah, huqqa, qalian, qalyan qaliyan, narghile, shisha and hubble-bubble. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 934-1876 |
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| Record created | June 24, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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