Minai-ware jug

The jug is decorated with four hunters on horseback alternating with a design of five falcons. Four strips of indecipherable inscriptions, executed in Kufic angular script, are visible on the inner surface, on the outside near the base, and on the handle.

The group of luxury items to which this piece belongs is called minai ware, after the Persian word for enamel. The uniqueness of this pottery lies in its richly painted decoration and its extensive palette, often employing as many as seven colors. This jug used six colors: blue and turquoise are under the glaze, while the overglaze consists of black, red, and brown, accented with gold details. Minai pottery pieces are considered some of the most remarkable creations of the Persian ceramic masters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Credit: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Warburg, New York