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Bowl with two wrestlers, Nishapur, 10th Century
David Collection Museum, Copenhagen

A larger image of this bowl with two wrestlers, Nishapur, 10th Century. David Collection Museum, Copenhagen.

Earthenware bowl, covered with a white slip and painted in black, yellow, and green under a transparent glaze
Eastern Iran, Nishapur; 10th century
Height: 9.5; Diameter: 21.8 cm

This colourful and very characteristic bowl belongs together with the bowl, inv.no. 25/1968, to a special group of ceramics that was produced in Nishapur at the same time as far simpler slip-painted types. The scenes are stylized, but also feature naturalistic elements: Two bearded men are wrestling, surrounded by birds and ornaments.

It has been suggested that the group of bowls harks back to pre-Islamic traditions or was made for a specific social or ethnic group in Nishapur.

Inv. no. 13/1975
Source: David Collection Museum, Copenhagen