A cobalt glazed radila design pottery bowl, Persia (Iran), 12th/13th century.
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Bone white ground with cobalt blue sunrays. The medieval Islamic society took astrology very seriously, and many objects were decorated with the sun and other planets, or with the signs of the zodiac.
Diameter 19, height 9 cm.
Provenance
From the Collection of Dr Emil Hultmark (1872-1943), Stockholm, thence by descent within the family until now.
Dr Emil Hultmark was an art historian, collector, donor and patron of the arts. He combined important work as an art historian not only with the creation of one of the largest and most remarkable private art collections in Sweden, but also with the construction of an archive of Swedish artists and art craftsmen unparalleled in its extent, together with a library containing almost all that has been written about Swedish art.
Emil Hultmark was one of the co-founders of the ‘Kinaklubben’ (China Club) in Stockholm in the 1920's with Carl Kempe (1884-1967) and the Crown Prince Gustav Adolf. He is a well known collector and his beautiful home and summer house is well documented in the magazine 'Svenska Hem i ord och bild' in the 1930's, which provide us with a fascinating window into this golden age of European collecting.
Exhibitions
Exhibited at Svenska Almänna Konstföreningen, Emil Hultmarks Samling, Stockholm 1942. Lot no 496
More information
Compare with the nearest identical bowl in the Ashmolean Museum collections, Oxford, Accession no. EA1978.2341