Bowl

This bowl is an example of lajvardina ware, easily recognizable by its blue glaze and abstract decoration in overglaze enamels and gold leaf. Although lajvardina refers to lapis lazuli in Persian (lajvard) and to the deep blue glaze, no lapis lazuli is actually used in its production because the color would burn away. The blue color comes instead from cobalt compounds. Similar in technique to minai with its use of overglaze enamels and gold leaf achieved through a complicated firing process, lajvardina seems to have gradually replaced minai (see B60P1863). Lajvardina was a highly specialized production under the Ilkhanids (1256-1353) at the end of the thirteenth century and into early fourteenth century, and later under the Timurids (1370-1506), most notably on tiles from some of the mausoleums of the Shah-i Zinda in Samarkand.

The decoration of lajvardina, unlike that of minai, is usually abstract and does not contain human figures. This bowl shows a typical pattern, with its radiating wide spokes and lobes filled with red and white scrolling patterns highlighted with gold. (Some of the gold leaf here appears to have been restored).

Careful attention has been paid to the bowl's exterior decoration, which consists of a series of lotus-like petals delineated in white. This bowl was expensive to produce and intended for display only, and not for everyday use.