18th C. Safavid Ceramic Bowl
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GUEST:
I got it from my uncle when he passed away.
APPRAISER:
And do you know where he got it from?
GUEST:
I don't know exactly. He lived in New York for years and years. He was a professor there in mathematics, and he liked beautiful objects.
APPRAISER:
And have you any idea what it is?
GUEST:
I just know that it's a Persian bowl and that's about it.
APPRAISER:
Well, it is Persian. And it's from the Safavid Dynasty period, which started in 1501 and ended in 1736.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
The Safavids were a mixed dynasty. They came from Kurdistan, I believe, and then settled in Ardabil. They ended up being a very powerful dynasty. They were also Sufis. Sufism is another dimension of Islam. This bowl dates from the latter part. It's probably early 18th century. Difficult to know. Very, very typical, with the three colors. They use the black, the green, and the cobalt blue. And the cobalt blue is something that you see a lot in Persian art, and it's very striking. It's really quite extraordinary. The border comes from sort of a Chinese origin. The bird's a real favorite image of the period. Now, the face in the middle, it depicts the face of the sun.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So you're looking into the bowl and it's radiating out from the bottom. What's good about this bowl is, it's so large.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Normally, they're sort of half the size.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
And given its size, it's remarkable it's stayed intact. It's a stoneware bowl, and it looks like porcelain on the inside, because they're trying to copy the Chinese, which was in great demand. But the Chinese kept a very close hold on the formulas of porcelain. Underneath, there tends to be sort of a treacly, thick glaze. They let it run down. And the foot at the bottom will be unglazed, always. A conservative estimate for this, retail, would be between $15,000 and $17,000.
GUEST:
Oh. That's amazing.
Appraisal Details
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