A dated Kashan lustre pottery bowl, Central Persia, 1 Rajab A.H. 994 / 9 May A.D. 1198

the scalloped body with cut vertical flutes and elegant octafoil flaring rim imitating a metal form, a short everted unglazed foot, the body covered with an opacified tin glaze stained with cobalt blue on the interior, the exterior decorated in overglaze lustre with a kufic frieze painted in reserve above a narrow cursive band and a minor band of conjoined lancet panels enclosing split leaves

Presented to Mr Charles Widney, US Chief of Protocol in Iran under Ambassador Chapman, during an official visit to Persepolis in the 1950s

INSCRIPTIONS

In Kufic, repetition of "Glory"

Verses in Persian and the date.