Double-shelled Ewer

Kashan potteries produced a number of exceptionally fine monochrome and underglaze-painted wares, including double-shelled ewers, where the vessels were overlaid with a pierced outer shell, perhaps an aid to cooling the contents. Such vessels were inevitably fragile and many must have collapsed during firing, but they demonstrate the virtuosity of Kashan potters in the decades immediately preceding the Mongol invasion.