Lot 224. A blue-ground lustre pottery jar, Egypt, 11th-12th century; 12.2cm. height; 10cm. diam. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 GBP. Lot sold 12,500 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

of ovoidal shape with straight neck and slightly everted rim, the turquoise-blue glaze body decorated in lustre with foliate pseudo-Kufic inscription.

Note: Blue-ground lustre wares from the Fatimid period are extremely rare. The present example is comparable in terms of shape to other jars in the Al-Sabah collection, Kuwait (inv. no. LNS 293 C, Watson 1985, pp.278-9, Cat.Ja.6.); the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Caiger-Smith 1985, p.40, no.16), and the Museo de la Alhambra, Granada (inv. no. 4.304). The intensity of the blue-ground colour with lustre is related only to fragments (for example, also in the Al-Sabah collection, inv. no. LNS 981 C a,b, (Watson 1985, p.282, no.Cat.Ja.10)).  

Sotheby's. Arts of the Islamic World, London, 19 Oct 2016, 11:30 AM