Bowl with Foliate Arabesque on Rim
16th-17th century
Description
A graceful foliate arabesque band, composed of twelve separate S curves terminating in five-lobed palmettes, runs just below the rim on the interior of this bowl. This decoration is subtly rendered with pierced dots and incised lines that reveal the grayish body of the bowl beneath its white slip coating. A clear glaze fills the piercings and covers the entire vessel with the exception of the concave base. Assigning this bowl to the eighteenth or nineteenth century runs counter to the results of the thermoluminescence analysis which suggest modern manufacture. The earlier dating is proposed for two reasons: first, the existence of two vessels acquired in Iran in the late nineteenth or very early twentieth century that also feature a decorative play between a grayish ceramic fabric and a white slip, and second, the fact that thermoluminescence is generally not as reliable for dating early modern ceramics as it is for medieval or ancient material. Despite numerous cracks, this bowl is intact.
Dimensions
9.7 x 26.9 cm (3 13/16 x 10 9/16 in.)
Provenance
[Mansour Gallery, London, 1972], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1972-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.
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