A Rare Timurid Blue and White Bowl, Persia or Central Asia, 15th Century - Photo Sotheby's. 

of deep form with rounded walls on a short foot, decorated in underglaze cobalt blue with a central medallion featuring a scrolling lotus flower, the body decorated with lotus flowers on an adjoining leafy scroll, with a band of mountain forms at the rim, the exterior with a similar design of scrolling lotus flowers; 32cm. diam. Estimate: 50,000 - 80,000 GBP. Unsold

CATALOGUE NOTE: The deep-form seen here decorated with lotus scroll on both the interior and exterior with minor bands of breaking wave and key fret pattern derives from an early Ming blue and white prototype, either from the reign of the Hongwu emperor (r.1368-99) or Xuande emperor (r.1426-35). Two bowls in the British Museum (inv. nos.OA 1947.7- 12.180 and OA 1973.7-26.360), illustrate this Chinese prototype, see Harrison-Hall, J., Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p.133, nos.4:24 and 4:25. Also, two similar examples from the Timurid period are illustrated in Lentz and Lowry 1989, pp.228 and 229, nos.130 and 131. The rarity of this type of Timurid deep bowl is testified by the fact that no closely comparable example is found in the definitive account ofTimurid ceramics Tamerlane's Tableware (Golombek, Mason and Bailey 1996)

Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World, London | 05 Oct 2011 www.sothebys.com