Spouted Jug with Kufic Inscriptions and Vegetal Decoration

CulturePersian

Datelate 12th century

MediumFritware, molded decoration with an opaque turquoise tin glaze Ceramic

DimensionsOverall: 6 3/4 × 6 1/8 inches (17.15 × 15.56 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-10

On View

Not on view

Collections

South and Southeast Asian Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Exhibition of Persian Art, The Iranian Institute, New York, April 15-May 15, 1940, gallery 1, case 34, no. J as Jug, Nishapur.

Echoes: Islamic Art and Contemporary Artists, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, August 31, 2013-April 27, 2014, no cat.

Gallery Label

The Seljuks were Turkic nomads from Central Asia who took control of West Asia in the 11^th century. Under the Seljuks, ceramics production thrived in the city of Kashan, in central Iran. There, potters experimented with new glazes and materials, like the fritware, used as the body of this jug. Fritware was a strong material that allowed potters to create thinner vessels with fine molded decoration. This jug is decorated with an inscription in Kufic script set against a field of scrolling arabesque vines and a frieze of half palmettes below.

Provenance

With Arthur Upham Pope (1881–1969), London and New York, by 1935 [1];

Purchased from Pope by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

[1] In letter dated June 19, 1934 from Arthur Upham Pope to J. C. Nichols (NAMA curatorial files), Pope writes of his recent return to Oxford from Persia. In the letter, his description of the spouted jug reads, “…one turquoise blue jug with relief pattern and fine Kufic is in my experience quite unmatched.”

Published References

Phyllis Ackerman, Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art, exh. cat. (New York: The Iranian Institute, 1940), 37.

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 172, (repro.).

Robert Cohon et al. Ceramics: Highlights from the Collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2016), 39, (repro.).

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