Lot 4. Two Nishapur pottery bowls, North East Iran, 10th century, 24.1cm & 19.7cm diam. Price realised £ 2,772. © Christie's Images Ltd 2024

Of conical form on short foot, the white ground decorated under the glaze with manganese and ochre pigments, one with a band of thick kufic with heavy serifs below a dotted rim, the other with three abstract lancets between brown pseudo-kufic motifs, both with plain exteriors, the larger broken and reassembled with associated restoration, the smaller intact.

Provenance: The larger excavated Village Tepe, Nishapur, before 1949; the smaller Gurgan, 1946.

Inscribed: The bowl with a band of continuous kufic below the rim baraka li-sah[hibi] ... surur wa sa'ada 'Blessing for its owner ... joy and happiness'. The bowl with lancets containing kufic repetitions of undeciphered words.

Christie's. Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets, London, 25 april 2024