A fine Kashan cobalt blue albarello, Persia, early 13th century

of cylindrical form with short sloping shoulder, short neck with everted rim, cobalt blue glaze over a moulded body with a monumental calligraphic frieze on a scroll ground with minor strapwork and stellar bands above and below, the neck with moulded kufic band

inscriptions

al-'izz wa al-iqbal wa al-dawla wa al-salama wa al-ni'ma

'Glory and Propserity and Wealth and Well-beuing and God's blessing'

 

This unusual decoration on this jar would have taken its inspiration from either mould-blown glass or hammered sheet metal, the metal proto-type being the more likely as it was the more expensive and desirable.