Bowl with Lustre Decoration

Like the golden lustre, the decoration, with alternating panels of birds and palmettes, is a deliberate reminiscence of vessels made in precious metal for the Abbasid court under the influence of the revival there of Sasanian ceremonial and iconography. The birds with buds in their beaks and royal streamers are common motifs on silver, both Sasanian and post-Sasanian, while the dotted ground of the palmettes accurately renders the ringmatting of early Islamic silverware.