Jug with Poetic Inscriptions

ca. 1200

The shape of this jug, with its round body, tubular neck and handle at a right angle, draws on earlier works in metal. The all-over decoration and its arrangement in superimposed registers are typical of the Kashan style. Stylised plant elements are combined with script painted on a white background or left exposed by the glazed background. These inscriptions are propitiatory formulas and poetic verses in Persian and Arabic, above all wishing the owner a long life or observing that “Good endures even if time is miserly with it and that evil is the most ignoble stock you can gather”.