Dish
ca. 1616-1642 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Large Persian Safavid fritware dish. A distorted wave-and-spray pattern is used on the flange as on Iznik dishes. Fine veining is used for the leaves. The wave patterns are curled up and spray patterns are made up of elongated leaves set against a ground of wickerwork. The rest of the dish is reserve-painted with a continuous leafy lotus scroll in the well. Six bracketed panels open toward the central flower with similar blooms inside them. Four elongated leafy S-stems with a central flower and small star dividers undulate on the outer well. This type of decoration is a regular feature on later dishes but is pained with less care. The exterior has a lose leaf and lotus flower decoration.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Fritware with underglaze painting in three blues |
| Brief description | Early Safavid ceramic dish in three blues |
| Physical description | Large Persian Safavid fritware dish. A distorted wave-and-spray pattern is used on the flange as on Iznik dishes. Fine veining is used for the leaves. The wave patterns are curled up and spray patterns are made up of elongated leaves set against a ground of wickerwork. The rest of the dish is reserve-painted with a continuous leafy lotus scroll in the well. Six bracketed panels open toward the central flower with similar blooms inside them. Four elongated leafy S-stems with a central flower and small star dividers undulate on the outer well. This type of decoration is a regular feature on later dishes but is pained with less care. The exterior has a lose leaf and lotus flower decoration. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Marks and inscriptions | (The signature inside the square mark is illegible.) |
| Object history | Historical significance: This dish was made during the early period of Safavid ceramic ware production. The dish shows great skill in composition, detail and brushwork. It is possibly the only time that a Persian potter, although unaware of the fact, reproduced Chinese porcelain designs of almost imperial quality. |
| Historical context | 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 plays a dominant but not exclusive role. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Bibliographic reference | Crowe, Yolande. Persia and China Safavid Blue and White Ceramics in the Victoria & Albert Museum 1501 -1738 Switzerland: 2002 ISBN 0-9538196-1-2 Worldwide distribution by Thames & Hudson. p.57
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1005-1876 |
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| Record created | March 29, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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