Persian blue and white dish, Tabriz, Iran, Early 16th century, 31.5cm diameter © Amir Mohtashemi Ltd.

This dish of circular form is decorated with a large central peony spray amongst leaves. The inner rim of the dish is painted with a cobalt blue and black honeycomb pattern. There is a wave border on a hatched background on the everted rim. The back of the dish is decorated with cobalt blue waterweed design. Three spur marks are visible to the front of the dish.

A similar Tabriz dish with accidental copper-turquoise splashes to the interior is in The Royal Ontario Museum, Accession Number 909.26.44; it has nearly identical decoration with a central peony spray, honeycomb design and waterweed exterior (Golombek, p. 256, pl. 74). Another late 15th or early 16th century dish with similar waterweed pattern to the exterior is in The Al-Sabah Collection, Accession Number LNS 762 C (Watson, p. 455). A third example with a similar wave border and honeycomb pattern but with a rabbit painted to the centre is in The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Accession Number 559-1905, circa 1500-1550.  

Literature: Golombek and others, Tamerlane’s Tableware: A New Approach to the Chinoiserie Ceramics of Fifteenth-and Sixteenth-Century Iran, Mazda Publishers in association with Royal Ontario Museum, California, USA, 1996. 

Watson, Ceramics From Islamic Lands: Kuwait National Museum, The Al-Sabah Collection, Thames & Hudson, London, 2004.

Amir Mohtashemi Ltd. 69 Kensington Church Street, London W8 4BG, United Kingdom