Bowl

early 1600s

Bowl, early 1600s. Iran, Safavid period (1501–1722). Fritware with underglaze design in colored slips, Kubachi ware; overall: 27 x 10.6 cm (10 5/8 x 4 3/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1915.582 Sprigs of flowers flowing from little tufts of grass decorate the inside of this bowl. Its sides are divided into panels by thin black lines. The outside is divided into two bands of decoration: above are scale-like motifs formed by black lines worked in with blue and below are arabesques with simple leaves in cobalt blue, copper green, and red-brown. This type of pottery is named after a town in the Caucasus region, but likely most Kubachi wares were made in northwestern Iran.