Kalian
1640-70 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
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 with polychrome underglaze decoration |
| Brief description | Kalian (waterpipe base), fritware, spherical, olive green-coloured ground, painted in white, red, and blue slip; Iran, 1640-70. |
| Physical description | Hookah base, fritware, of spherical form, with a hole in the neck and shoulder for attaching the metal components forming the water smoking pipe, covered in straw-coloured greenish slip or wash and painted in white, reddish-orange and blue-coloured slip with floral sprays and arabesque-filled cartouche. |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label |
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| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | 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. |
| Bibliographic reference | Lane, Arthur. Later Islamic Pottery. London: Faber and Faber, 1957. 133p., ill. Pages 72, 82, 106, plate 87A |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 678-1889 |
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| Record created | November 19, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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