A RAQQA TURQUOISE-GLAZED POTTERY DISH, SYRIA, EARLY 13TH CENTURY

A pottery dish rising from short vertical foot through rounded body to everted rim, the interior painted in black under the glaze with a central roundel enclosing two elegant birds perched on a blossoming branch, surrounded by a diaper band of triangles.
Diameter: 26.5 cm.

Similar underglaze painted objects are usually attributed to Raqqa, a town on the Euphrates in northeast Syria, from which a large number appeared on the market since the end of the 19th century. While some of the workshops were located there, as the unearthing of a large number of wasters confirms, others were located elsewhere along the Euphrates valley, in southern Anatolia, central Syria, Damascus and as far as Egypt.