A Samanid slip-painted pottery Bowl

Eastern Persia or Transoxiana, 10th Century
Diameter: 25.2 cm

A beautiful slip-painted pottery bowl with straight flaring sides, decorated in manganese brown and tomato red on a a cream ground, the base with a roundel containing a lattice with tri-lobed motif, the sides with a band of stylized chain motif, above a frieze of floriated kufic, the rim with an interlacing cable band with undulating border.

Kufic inscription in Arabic: Ashraf al-ghina tark al-mina baraka “The most noble of riches is the abandonment of desires. Blessings.”