Bowl with Incised Lotus Flowers

Bowl (no. 11.137.1) and Bottle (no. 91.1.131)

These two objects belong to a group of Safavid Persian ceramics known as Gombroon ware, named after a trading post on the south coast of Iran.[1] Such wares represent a revival of the incised white-body ceramic vessels that first became popular in Iran in the twelfth century. Like much of Iranian ceramic production from the ninth century onward, both Gombroon wares and their twelfth-century stylistic ancestors sought to emulate Chinese ceramics. Chinese porcelain was especially prized in Iran, not only for its aesthetic appeal but also for its unique technical qualities, since kaolin, the white clay used to create this porcelain, was unavailable in the region.

The bowl (no. 11.137.1), with its rounded sides, plain lip, and short foot, is probably modeled on Chinese lien-tzu (lotus seed) bowls.[2] The bottle (no. 91.1.131), with its globular body and thin neck ending in a flared lip, also accords with known porcelain shapes, though the neck is perhaps more elongated than those found on most Chinese examples. Both objects are decorated with incised lines that form stylized lotuses (on the bowl) and scrolling cloud bands (on the bottle). Light shining through these lines creates a subtle play of translucency and opacity, light and line. The incised areas also serve to emphasize the thinness of the walls—a characteristic of Chinese porcelain that Iranian craftsmen hoped to emulate. The lightness and transparency of these ceramics result from centuries of refinement that began with the heavier, more opaque white ceramics of Seljuq Iran. The potters of the seventeenth century, while drawing upon these older prototypes, were able to approximate more closely the look and feel of porcelain.

The revival in production of white ceramics in Iran may have been a response to the discontinuation of porcelain exportation from China between 1643–45 and 1683. Depending on the date of the wares, their popularity could also be due to the oversaturation of the long popular blue-and-white ceramics in the Western market as the Dutch produced great quantities of imitation wares and as the Chinese porcelain trade resumed in 1683.[3]

Gombroon was a point of export rather than a place of production, and the eponymous white wares discussed here were only a fraction of the goods shipped from that port. Textiles and spices as well as other types of ceramics, including Iranian blue-and-white wares and lusterwares, were also exported in large numbers from Gombroon. Ideally situated, the port was frequented by both the Dutch and English East India Companies and served as an entrepot for ceramics and other luxury goods into Europe.[4] The style of Gombroon ceramics and their role in international trade reflect the significant artistic, cultural, and economic ties that existed between China, Iran, and Europe in the seventeenth century.

Maryam Ekhtiar and Kendra Weisbin in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. The trading post of Gombroon is alternately called Bandar Abbas. See Froom, Aimee. Persian Ceramics from the Collections of the Asian Art Museum. San Francisco, 2008, p. 118.

2. Blue-and-white lien-tzu bowls are common, as are white examples closely related to the Museum’s Gombroon bowl. See, for example, Pope, John Alexander. Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine. Smithsonian Institution Publication 4231. Washington, D.C., 1956, pl. 113 (two white lien-tzu bowls with incised floral decoration).

3. By the late seventeenth century, blue-and-white wares of various kinds were being produced and exported in huge numbers by Persian, Chinese, Japanese, and Dutch kilns (Rogers, J. Michael. "Chinese-Iranian Relations. iv. The Safavid Period,907–1145/1501–1732." In Encyclopaedia Iranica 1985– , vol. 5 (1992), pp. 436–38).

4. Crowe, Yolande. Persia and China: Safavid Blue and White Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1501–1738.[Geneva], 2002, p. 44.

Marking: Blue mark below base

[ George R. Harding, London, until 1911; sold to Valentiner]; William Reinhold Valentiner, New York (1911; gifted to MMA)

Asia Society. "Iranian Ceramics," May 3, 1963–September 12, 1963, no. 98.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "A King's Book of Kings: Persian Miniatures from Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama of 1528," May 4–December 31, 1972, no catalog.

Musée du Louvre. "Le Chant du Monde : L'Art de l'Iran Safavide," October 1, 2007–January 7, 2008, no. 84.

Wilkinson, Charles K. Iranian Ceramics. New York: Asia House Gallery, 1963. no. 98, p. 141, ill. (b/w).

Grube, Ernst J. "The Art of Islamic Pottery." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 23, no. 6 (February 1965). pp. 216–17, ill. fig. 13 (b/w).

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, Suzanne G. Valenstein, and Julia Meech-Pekarik. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In Oriental Ceramics: The World's Great Collections. vol. 12. Tokyo: Kodansha International Ltd., 1977. no. 278, ill. pl. 278 (b/w).

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn. "Islamic Pottery: A Brief History." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, vol. 40, no. 4 (Spring 1983). no. 58, pp. 48–49, ill. (color).

Melikian-Chirvani, Assadullah. "L'Art de l' Iran Safavide 1501–1736." In Le Chant du Monde. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2007. no. 84, pp. 300–1, ill. (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 159, pp. 232–34, ill. p. 233 (color).