Persia, Nishapur, ca. 10th century AD. A pottery bowl of a hemispherical form on a short unglazed foot. The interior is decorated with cream ground and embellished with stylised motifs painted in brown, yellow, and green. Medieval Islamic ceramics developed as a distinctive tradition of decoration in Muslim lands several centuries after the original Arab conquests. From the 9th century onwards, distinctive Islamic ceramic styles, often involving glazed and/or incised decoration developed and spread across the Islamic world and beyond; Islamic ceramics also had an important influence on pottery production in Italy and in the Byzantine empire. Size: L: 70mm / W: 160mm ; 415gProvenance: Private UK collection; From an old British collection formed in the 1990s.