A large Samanid conical pottery bowl, Samarqand, Central Asia, 10th century

Compositional devices in bowls of this type were used sparingly but purposefully and Hillenbrand notes that “symmetry is of the essence, but it is redeemed from any suspicion of being mechanical by the sense of free space which envelops the design” (Hillenbrand 2015, p.62). In relation to the use of palmette as a decorative feature on slip-painted wares, Oliver Watson praises the precise execution and confident placement of the motifs that parallel the striking simplicity of the very best epigraphic bowls (Watson 2004, p.220).

This is particularly true of the striking design of the present dish in which the surface decoration serves to highlight the impressive profile of the bowl itself. The powerfully drawn palmette evokes the majestic scale of the dish while the swooping arabesques and the pointed terminal of the palmette pointing towards the central rosette emphasise its steep conical form.

A bowl of a comparably impressive scale but with an epigraphic inscription was sold at Christie’s London, 28 October 2020, lot 4, and another with a similarly drawn palmette is in the Keir collection (Grube 1976, p.99, no.58).