Lot 44. A large Abbasid tin-glazed dish, attributable to Muhammad al-Salah, Mesopotamia, 9th century; 24.5cm. diam. Estimate 50,000 — 80,000 GBP. Lot sold 61,250 GBP. © Sotheby's.

of hemispherical form on a short foot, covered in an opacified glaze, decorated in cobalt blue with a central spot enclosed by four fan-like palmette leaves.

Provenance: ex-Collection Dominique Fourcade.

Note: This ceramic bowl is one of the most significant examples of early Abbasid ceramic production still in private hands. The austere but powerfully dynamic design of four monumental palmettes surging around a central circle creates a swirling almost expressionistic energy.

The bowl may be compared to two others in which the same four-palmette arrangement appears in addition to a central inscription, in both cases Baraka li Sahibhi Ama Muhammad al-Sala (the work of Muhammad al'Sala) (Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main, inv. no.12674, diameter 22cm., and Keir Collection, Ham, Richmond, diameter 21cm).

For another bowl with the same design arrangement and an unread inscription in the middle see, Musée du Louvre, inv.MAO 20, diameter 20 cm. (published: Arabesques et Jardins de Paradis, Collections Françaises d'Art Islamique, no.2, p.28, Paris 1990).

Coupe épigraphiée aux palmettes digitées, IXe - Xe siècle, Iraq. Céramique argileuse, décor peint sur glaçure opacifiée. Legs Alphonse Kann, 1949. Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts de l'Islam, inv. MAO 20. © Musée du Louvre/A. Neveux Leclerc

Two other ceramic bowls with an identical arrangement including in the middle an inscription reciting "Blessings to the Owner", but executed in what looks like a substantially different style (they both employ turquoise as well as cobalt blue), are in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. inv. no. F 2000/2, diameter 21cm. and in the Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran inv. no. 30-77, diameter 13.8cm. It is possible that they both represent an Iranian version of the Iraqi model as the bowl in Tehran was found in Susa, Iran. 

All the above mentioned ceramic bowls, apart from the one in Washington and the one in Tehran, are stylistically so consistent as to suggest the possibility that other ceramic bowls of identical design and execution might have been made by the same master. This is the case with our bowl as well as three others that share with ours a similar arrangement and also do not have an inscription. These are: (1) ex-Foroughi Collection, now Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran, inv. no. unknown, diameter 22cm; (2) Private Collection, Padova, Italy, diameter 21cm; (3) The Nasser D.Khalili Collection, London, diameter 21cm. 

Sotheby's. Arts of the Islamic World, London, 8 October 2008