An Abbasid lustre bowl, Iraq, 9th-10th century

inscriptions

baraka or 'blessing'

The Abbasid pottery bowls, of which this is a striking example, clearly illustrate the presence of Chinese imported porcelain in this period. The form of the bowl, a deep well with a broad everted rim, is directly imitating the Chinese model, the influence of which gradually fades over time (Watson 2004, p.172).  The body is of a light and distinctive 'Basran' clay (ibid., p.183). Sometimes, the decoration was simple and sparse, composed of splashes, after the Chinese again, or with small-scale calligraphic inscriptions. But the wares decorated with lustre, its earliest appearance in Islamic pottery, were produced in a style of bold decorative ambition.

The entire surface of this bowl is filled with one decorative device or another, an apparent horror vacui. This bowl is part of a series that displays the Abbasid potters' skills to their best. The series is defined by the use of several key features: a large central design in the form of a single man or beast placed on a dotted ground, cusped rim design, and, often but not always, a brief phrase or single word in kufic in the interior. The main motifs vary from a lutist, a court attendant with fan, an elephant, a rabbit and, of course, a cockerel (ibid., pp.191-3, cat.nos.E.11-4). The reverse of these dishes also tend to follow a similar format. The size of these dishes vary from small to large, such as this dish, though a dish with a lutist in the Freer Gallery, Washington is larger still (Atil 1973, pp.18-9, no.3).

Many of the subjects for these dishes would appear to be illustrations of courtly emblems. The cockerel as an artistic motif is inherited from Sasanian tradition and is the only beast featured in the tilework of the Palace at Samarra (Lane 1947, p.15). It appears in various forms of art in the Abbasid period. A freestanding figure of a cockerel in bronze is in the Museum of Ethnology in St. Petersburg (Loukonine and Ivanov 2003, p.99, no.87). An Abbasid bronze or brass ewer in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, retaining a strong sense of Sasanian design in its form, has a cockerel in relief and inlay on its body (Amsterdam 1999, p.227, no.200). The motif continued to find favour in a court setting at least into the twelfth century judging by the fountainhead from Raqqa now in the David Collection, Copenhagen (von Folsach 2001, p.158, no.186).

Thus it can be seen that this bowl combines traditional elements from Sasanian art, imported influence from China and innovative use of the new lustre decoration to form a vital and iconic example of early Islamic art.