Harvard Art Museums > 2002.50.81: Bowl with Blue Bird and Rim Inscription Vessels Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Bowl with Blue Bird and Rim Inscription , 2002.50.81,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Nov 18, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/165495. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 2002.50.81 Title Bowl with Blue Bird and Rim Inscription Classification Vessels Work Type vessel Date 19th-20th century Places Creation Place: Middle East, Iran Period Modern Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/165495 Physical Descriptions Medium Fritware with underglaze painting Technique Underglazed, painted Dimensions 9.2 x 20.2 cm (3 5/8 x 7 15/16 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History [Hadji Baba Rabbi House of Antiquities, Teheran, before 1973], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (by 1973-2002), 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 2002.50.81 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description This bowl and a nearly identical one in shape (2002.50.79) have on their rims the same repeated words in stylized Kufic script— perhaps interpretable as the Arabic al-dawla (wealth). Similarly shaped and decorated bowls are attributed to late twelfth-or thirteenth-century Iran; although both of these bowls are reassembled from many fragments and show degradation of the glaze, the results of thermoluminescence analysis on one of them (2002.50.81) suggest that they are both of relatively recent manufacture. Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013140, 141 Two bowls with inscribed rims Probably Iran, 19th or 20th century[1] Fritware painted in blue (cobalt) under clear alkali glaze 8.4 × 19.3 cm (3 5/16 × 7 5/8 in.) 9.2 × 20.2 cm (3 5/8 × 7 15/16 in.) 2002.50.79; 2002.50.81 These two bowls are nearly identical in shape and have on their rims the same repeated words in stylized Kufic script—perhaps interpretable as the Arabic al-dawla (wealth). One bowl also has a small bird in the center. Similarly shaped and decorated bowls are attributed to late twelfth-or thirteenth-century Iran;[2] although both of these bowls are reassembled from many fragments and show degradation of the glaze, the results of thermoluminescence analysis on one of them suggest that they are both of relatively recent manufacture. Ayşin Yoltar-Yıldırım [1] The bowl tested, 2002.50.81, was last fired less than 200 years ago, according to the results of thermoluminescence analysis carried out by Oxford Authentication Ltd. in 2011. [2] See, for instance, a bowl in the Khalili Collection, London, reproduced in Grube 1994, 200, cat. 216. Publication History Jessica Chloros, "An Investigation of Cobalt Pigment on Islamic Ceramics at the Harvard Art Museums" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2008), Unpublished, pp. 1-41 passim Mary McWilliams, ed., In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2013), p. 268, cat. 141, 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