Bowl with scattered trefoils

The most famous wares produced in the northeastern part of the Persian world in the tenth century are the large white bowls with striking designs of stylized calligraphy in dark brown, like the example on the other side of this case. The potters also reversed their colors, as here, scattering white motifs on a dark brown background.

Small dark-brown glazed bowls with decoration of scattered motifs such as this remind some scholars of Chinese Song dynasty tea bowls of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They believe that the potters of one country may have seen and been influenced by the bowls of the other. Many scholars are cautious, however, noting differences in shape, color palette, and decorative schemes. They think that the apparent similarities could have come about by coincidence.