Bowl with poppy seed pods and floral decoration

In the center of this bowl is what may be a poppy plant with a seedpod on a long stem, and eight more instances of this motif are seen around the interior rim. Growing poppies for their beauty and for making opium from the juice of the seed pods has a long history in Iran. Poppy seeds were sometimes eaten in cakes; so was opium, even though consuming intoxicants was forbidden in Islam. Poppy seeds and opium could also be made into tea.

So-called Kubachi ware, of which this bowl is an example, was named for the locale where large numbers of examples were found, not for where it was made. Both the area where they were made and the area where they were found are in the far northwest, near the border of modern Turkey. Turkish potters produced the brightly colored Iznik ware ceramics shown nearby. Persian Kubachi ware emulated the colorful palette and floral decorations of Iznik ware.