2006.207: Blue and white Abbassid bowl from Basra

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2006.207

Title

Blue and white Abbassid bowl from Basra

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

9th century

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iraq, Basra

Period

Abbasid period

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/316050

Location

Location

Level 2, Room 2550, Art from Islamic Lands, The Middle East and North Africa

View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Earthenware with overglaze painting

Technique

Overglazed

Dimensions

Estimated H: 5 x Diam: 21.5 cm (2 x 8 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen, Princeton, NJ, (by 2006), gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen in memory of Richard Ettinghausen and in honor of Mary A. McWilliams

Accession Year

2006

Object Number

2006.207

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

In shape, this is a shallow bowl with outward curving rim and a short foot. The buff-colored clay fabric is hidden by a coating of lead-fluxed, tin glaze that opacifies white upon firing. The decoration, in a rich, deep cobalt, consists of an irregular rosette with ten petals in the center and five scallops on the outward curving rim.

Commentary

Label text from exhibition “Re-View,” an overview of objects drawn from the collections of Harvard Art Museums, 26 April 2008 – 1 July 2013; label text written by Mary McWilliams, Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art:

Bowl Decorated with Blue Flower and Scallops
Iraq, Basra, `Abbasid dynasty, early 9th century
Earthenware with cobalt painted over glaze
Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Elizabeth S. Ettinghausen in memory of Richard Ettinghausen and in honor of Mary A. McWilliams, 2006.207

Ceramics decorated with cobalt blue on a white ground were first produced—albeit briefly—by potters working during the Tang dynasty (618–907) in China and for the `Abbasid dynasty centered in Iraq. The blue-and-white combination inspired one of the longest-running and most influential ceramic dia¬logues between eastern and western Asia. There is at present a lively disagreement among scholars as to which culture should be credited with its invention.

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
• Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 37

Exhibition History

• Overlapping Realms: Arts of the Islamic World and India, 900-1900, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 12/02/2006 - 03/23/2008
• Re-View: Arts of India & the Islamic Lands, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/26/2008 - 06/01/2013
• 32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

• Google Art Project

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