Bowl

Some of the distinctive characteristics of this seventeenth century Iranian bowl include its red luster paint with metallic reflections, a "piercing" on one foot, and a slightly cracked rim. The imperfection, a sign of the vessel's antiquity, may have been part of its appeal to Freer, who considered it "rare and important." He purchased this stone-paste bowl from Dikran Kelekian as part of a group acquisition in 1903. In 1908, he displayed it in the Peacock Room with a grouping of similar bowls, on a corner shelf adjacent to the main doorway.