Central Iran. Of pear-form, rising from a short vertical foot to cockerel-head mouth with pronounced comb, simple handle, the body with a register of wide white interlacing strapwork forming cobalt circles with radiating black motif, above and below bands of white naskhi script reserved against black ground with Persian verses, a band of black waterweed on cobalt ground below, a similar band of calligraphy around the neck surrounded by further waterweed motifs, the eyes surrounded by cobalt circles and a series of small dots.

Provenance: From a private collection in Switzerland, acquired in 1974. Christie’s London, 5 October 2010, lot 105, sold for GBP 4,000 or approx. EUR 8,300 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). A private collection in the United Kingdom, acquired from the above.
Condition: Condition commensurate with age. Firing irregularities including expected craquelure, pitting, burst bubbles, and glaze recesses. Some staining and oxidation to glaze. Professional restoration to neck and handle. Few chips, a minuscule loss to the body, minor glaze flaking, soil encrustations.

Weight: 632.6 g
Dimensions: 24.6 cm

Underglaze-painted vessels such as the present lot were contemporary with Kashan lustre ware. Often the decoration was done with cobalt-blue and black pigments – the former was quite volatile with a tendency to run, while the latter was thick and viscous enough that it could be incised. The distinctive form of this ewer, with its molded cockerel’s head, is not uncommon in medieval Iranian pottery. Though they have a variety of different handle designs and body shapes, the heads are broadly homogenous across the group. The model may have been Sassanian metalwork or Tang Dynasty phoenix-head ewers, though an indigenous tradition can also not be ruled out (see Oliver Watson, Ceramics of Iran, London, 2020, p. 178, cat. no. 91)

Literature comparison:
There are three examples of bowls decorated with this technique in the Khalili collection, of which one (cat. no. 214) is dated AH 611/1214 AD, see Ernst J. Grube, ‘Iranian stone-paste pottery of the Saljuq period’, Cobalt and Lustre: the First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, London, 1994, pp. 197-99, cat. nos. 213-15.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s London, 26 October 2023, lot 42
Price: GBP 20,160 or approx. EUR 25,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Kashan cockerel head pottery ewer, Iran, 13^th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, and size (25.7 cm).