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interior Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2002.50.90
Title
Fragmentary Bowl
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
vessel
Date
10th century
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran or Central Asia
Period
Samanid period
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/160271

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Reddish earthenware covered in white slip and painted with red (iron) and black (manganese and iron) under clear lead glaze.
Technique
Underglazed, painted
Dimensions
7.2 x 23.4 cm (2 13/16 x 9 3/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Mansour Gallery, London, 1974], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (1974-2002), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art
Accession Year
2002
Object Number
2002.50.90
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
This bowl is a modern pastiche, pieced together from fragments of eleven different vessels, all probably dating to the Samanid period. The reconstruction has given the bowl an uncharacteristically squat profile. The inscription, recomposed from a hodgepodge of fragments, is indecipherable. Heavy overpainting that formerly disguised the joins between unrelated fragments has been removed.

Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013
134

Fragmentary bowl
Modern assemblage from fragments attributed to eastern Iran or Central Asia, Samanid period, 10th century
Reddish earthenware covered in white slip and painted with red (iron) and black (manganese and iron) under clear lead glaze
7.2 × 23.4 cm (2 13/16 × 9 3/16 in.)
2002.50.90

This bowl is a modern pastiche, pieced together from fragments of eleven different vessels, all probably dating to the Samanid period.[1] The reconstruction has given the bowl an uncharacteristically squat profile. The inscription, recomposed from a hodgepodge of fragments, is indecipherable. Heavy overpainting that formerly disguised the joins between unrelated fragments has been removed.

Mary McWilliams

[1] See, in this catalogue, the essay by Anthony B. Sigel, “History in Pieces: Conservation Issues in Islamic Ceramics,” 37–49.

Publication History

  • Mary McWilliams, ed., In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2013), p. 41, ill.; p. 265, cat. 134, ill.

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu