Bowl with bird designs

Like the other bowls in this case, this one has painted slip decoration. All of these bowls were made using the same technique, but this one has a clear yellow overglaze, which makes the bowl lustrous.

Local artists used this glaze to imitate the metallic oxide glazes on ceramics produced in places such as Iraq and Egypt. The peacocks (or possibly pheasants) and the peacock-eye pattern on the wings of the birds were also copied from the west. In this way the artist created a local version of what would have been an expensive foreign import.