Lot 57. A  Safavid blue and white pottery jar, Iran, 1st half 17th century; 26.1 cm high. Price realised GBP 11,970 (Estimate GBP 8,000 – GBP 12,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024

The body with a white ground decorated with two large dragons in a horizontal band across the waist beneath a stormy sky with cranes flying, the neck decorated with a floral meander rising to a slightly flared mouth, the base with a small pseudo-Chinese mark, intact.

Provenance: Private UK collection by 1959 and thence by descent.

Note: The shoulder of this elegant jar is decorated with flying cranes, a feature of Ming porcelain found in the decorative schemes from the Jianjing (1522-66) and Wanli (1573-1620) periods (Yolande Crowe, Persia and China: Safavid Blue and White Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1501-1738, Geneva, 2002, p.90). A jar of similar form with related decoration around the shoulder is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (inv.2439-1876), attributed there to the slightly later reigns of two Safavid rulers - Shah Abbas I (r.1587-1629) and Shah Safi I (r.1629-42). Other jars of similar form are published by Crowe, op.cit., pp.90-95, nos.89-105.

Christie's. ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS INCLUDING RUGS AND CARPETS, London, 25 April 2024