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An extremely rare and beautiful Islamic Underglazed blue jug or ewer dating from the 14th-15th Century AD.
A striking example of a rare type, this jug has a short foot with low, wide belly and tapering neck. It is decorated profusely in cobalt blue and green with detail added in etched scraffiato technique. The lower half of the vessel shows floral decoration whilst the central reserved band is decorated with bird like motif.
A very unusual vessel. We have found no obvious parallels for this type. In form it bears a resemblance to the famous Turkish Iznik 'frit-ware' ceramics of the 16th century, although the decoration is unusually coarse for this type. Thus it possibly represents an early form of Iznik work.
Islamic ceramics were often inspired by Imported Chinese porcelain, which the Islamic potters encountered by virtue of both trade in the Abassid period and via Mongol Invasion in the Seljuk period. The Chinese influence is strikingly obvious on the present example, the floral and bird like blue on white decoration betraying the influence of Song and Ming Dynasty workshops.
Height: 7 inches.
Condition: Handle restored. Possible minor restoration to the neck and base.
Provenance: From the Collection of Hugo Munsterberg.
Munsterberg (1916-1995) was a prolific author of over twenty publications on Oriental Art and a distinguished collector of Antiquities. He was born in Berlin but emigrated to the United States in 1935. Having studied at Harvard and obtained his Ph.D in 1941, he embarked on a successful career in academia, later moving to Japan on a teaching post. He obtained much of his collection on his frequent visits to New York around the middle of the last century.
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