A fine fritware jug of bulbous form on slightly everted foot, the moulded body with vertical lines in relief, the upper body shaped as a head of a cockerel.

Kashan, Persia
12th-13th Century

Height: 24cm

Chinese porcelain ewer in the shape of a cockerel reached Persia in the tenth century and soon became an inspiration for regional production; the local craftsmen started experimenting, covering the body in a thick white glaze; the clear glaze of this ewer is probably imitating the white ewers which were coming out of China1. The moulded bulbous body is decorated with vertical lines, a technique and motif which the potters will keep experimenting with, as visible in a Kashan cockerel-shaped ewer which has the body divided into vertical slices2.

Von Folsach 2001
K. von Folsach, Arts from the World of Islam in The David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001.

Watson 2004 (cer.15,cer.5, cer.40)
O. Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, The Al-Sabah Collection, London 2004.