Bowl with green, yellow, and brown splashed decoration, 10th century
Found at Iran, Nishapur, Sabz Pushan, Well in Room 2, Lower Level
Earthenware; white slip, incised and splashed with polychrome glazes under transparent glaze (sgraffito ware)
Technical Glossary
Found at Iran, Nishapur, Sabz Pushan, Well in Room 2, Lower Level
Earthenware; white slip, incised and splashed with polychrome glazes under transparent glaze (sgraffito ware)
H. 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm), Diam. 10 1/4 in. (26 cm)
Rogers Fund, 1938 (38.40.137)
This bowl is an example of the splashware made throughout Iraq, Iran, and western Central Asia, a type that owes its ultimate inspiration to Tang Chinese splash-painted wares that also relied on a combination of green, yellow, and brown glazes as their main source of decoration. The addition of geometric and floral patterns, scratched into the surface of the bowl before the glazes were applied, was, however, a unique innovation of the Iranian potters, and the vigorous yet refined drawing of the foliate forms makes this one of the finest splashed sgraffito pieces excavated.
