Daily grace

Dish

17th century, Kirman?, Iran

fritware (silica, glass frit, and clay) with decoration cut through a blue slip under a transparent glaze

The Safavid dynasty, Iran’s rulers from 1502 to 1736, avidly collected Chinese blue-and-white porcelain: In 1611, Shah Abbas dedicated a collection of 1,162 pieces at a family shrine in northwestern Iran. Local potters soon made their own imitations, painting the design in cobalt blue on a white artificial-paste body. This dish is one of a small group in which the traditional technique and palette are reversed, and was likely made in Kirman, established as a center of ceramics after Abbas reconquered the Persian Gulf in 1622. The flowering plant on the dish’s well, a peony, is inspired by the type of Chinese plant often found on such large open pieces, though the design around the rim is purely Islamic.