Flat-Rimmed Bowl with Bird in Foliage

A large crane-like bird with bent neck and raised leg dominates the interior of this bowl. The dense foliage around the bird includes lotus blossoms, trademark motifs of Ilkhanid wares. Encircling the exterior beneath the rim is a band of vertical white stripes outlined in black; more widely spaced white stripes decorate the lower portion. The white slip decoration stands slightly in relief; the interior is enlivened with dots of cobalt blue, which have run. The clear, greenish-tinged glaze has pooled at the center of the bowl and has deteriorated on the exterior. Once assigned to Sultanabad, in western Iran, bowls with this shape and dense foliate decoration were common in the Ilkhanid period.