Current research attributes this tenth-century steep-walled clay bowl on a flat base to pottery art from Nishapur, in the north-east of modern-day Iran. A white engobe (a thin clay mineral mass known as slip) was applied to it followed by a colorless glaze. A dark-colored slip runs around the rim of the bowl and depicts an abstract painting on the inside. Depending on how you look at the bowl, the picture can be interpreted in different ways—for example, as a long-necked bird with lowered wings and a tail modified into an ornamental tendril (palmettes) or as a horned animal, possibly an ibex. Characters reminiscent of Arabic script adorn the painted image.

Depictions of birds, but also ibexes or fish, are frequently found on similar ceramics. The museum’s collection contains various examples of bird decorations with calligraphic decorative strokes. In most cases, the written decoration is legible and the birds are recognizable through their own unique characteristics. The portrayal on the bowl shown here, however, defies any clear definition or reading. The high degree of abstraction makes the bowl an exceptional piece.

Finds of comparable white-ground slipwares in Nishapur suggest that this bowl was also made there. Nishapur was one of the Samanid capitals, where they established their own rule from 874 to 999, independent of the caliphate in Baghdad. This led to prosperity and the development of their own art forms, such as this ceramic, reminiscent of early Chinese stoneware and porcelain. The clay vessels, covered with a white, opaque slip, were more durable and easier to produce than the coveted fragile Chinese wares that had been imported into the region for centuries on the Central Asian Silk Road and by sea. The decoration’s free design with writing and animal motifs, which is completely independent of ancient Persian or Chinese models, is a unique and special achievement of Nishapur pottery.