Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 137, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

Cup

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.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Fritware, underglaze and lustre decoration
Brief description
Cup, fritware, blue ground, glazed and lustre painted decoration of trees and cypress, Iran, 1650-1700.
Physical description
Cup, fritware, teabowl shape, the exterior with cobalt-blue ground, glazed and painted on the interior and exterior with double cyprus and other foliage in ruby-coloured lustre.
Dimensions
  • Height: 4.4cm
  • Diameter: 7.6cm
Style
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.
Bibliographic reference
Moya Carey, Persian Art. Collecting the Arts of Iran for the V&A, London, 2017, p.75.
Collection
Accession number
7485-1861

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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