Double-shelled Ewer

Location: Kashan, Iran

Materials: stonepaste ware, painted in black under a turquoise glaze; pierced outer shell

Dimensions: 28.2 x 14.3cm

Accession Number: POT 773

Other Notes:

Kashan potteries produced a number of exceptionally fine monochrome and underglaze-painted wares, including double-shelled ewers, where the vessels were overlaid with a pierced outer shell, perhaps an aid to cooling the contents. Such vessels were inevitably fragile and many must have collapsed during firing, but they demonstrate the virtuosity of Kashan potters in the decades immediately preceding the Mongol invasion.

Bibliography:

E.J. Grube et al, Cobalt and Lustre. The First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, The Nasser D Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume IX, London 1994, cat.211, p.195.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.123, p.110.