A proper table bowl in the early Islamic manner. Wide-mouthed, glazed where it mattered, and left bare at the foot where the potter held it to dip it into the glaze. Cobalt blue on a pale ground is one of the signature looks of early Mesopotamian pottery, the same blue that would later travel all the way to Chinese porcelain and back.

Age has only helped it. The blue has gone smoky and mineral, and the surface carries the soft, dulled quality of a piece that has clearly had a long life.

It comes from the Marjorie Ho collection, by way of East & West Art Gallery. We haven't had it tested for a precise age, which can be done, so we offer it on the early Islamic comparison rather than as a dated, documented antiquity.