5 SGR AFFITO BOWL Iran (Nishapur), 10th century Height: 7.6 cm Diameter: 21.7 cm
A sgraffito and underglaze-painted conical bowl on a strong but shallow foot-rim, in shades of green, ochre brown, yellow and white with a scratched design of a stylised flower decorating the interior. The bowl sits on a short foot, its exterior plain, but with a vibrantly painted interior in the sancai palette so common in Tang dynasty Chinese pottery from the seventh to tenth centuries. A scratched pattern of a large stylised quatrefoil flower covers the ground and deep cavetto, with a loose bud to its centre. Four radiating bands with double borders
and scrolling details decorate the centre of each large petal, the bands painted with a splash of brown, framed by green on either side, and then vibrant yellow to each petal edge, with small areas of the off-white slip still remaining. Further stylised decorative motifs fill the spandrels between the petals. Framing the central design is a dark and rich green rim. Outside, the pigments slightly overlap the rim. The rest of the body and the unglazed foot show the brown clay through the slip. Sgraffito pottery belongs to one of the most important and earliest groups of ceramic wares. The term sgraffito comes from the Italian sgraffire, meaning “to scratch�.1 It has been suggested that the sgraffito technique was invented
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and introduced by the Copts in Egypt as early as the fourth and fifth centuries AD. Sgraffito ware played an important role in Iranian pottery during the tenth to early thirteenth centuries and several types were developed. One of these as seen here, is when the design is incised into a ground slip and covered with coloured glazes and a colourless transparent glaze. For an identical bowl, see the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, no. 55.66.5. A related example is published in Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, 2001, p. 131, no. 103.
Reference: 1. James W. Allan, Islamic Ceramics, 1991, p. 12.