Minai ware

Arthur Lane explains that a potter wanting polychrome painting had two courses: to restrict the palette to the few colours that stand the heat of firing pot and glaze together, or to fire the glazed pot first and then paint in less stable colours fixed by a second firing at a much lower temperature. ¹ He says these "low-temperature" colours were used only by Persian potters and were never adopted in Syria or Egypt. ¹

In the "seven-colour" process described by Abu al-Qasim of Kashan, parts of the design were painted in clear pale blue, purple and green on or under the raw glaze before the first firing; black outlines and other colours mixed with a vitreous flux were then added and fixed in one or more further firings at a lower temperature, among them a shiny black, chestnut, Pompeian red, white and leaf gilding. ¹ Lane notes that the name minai ("enamelled") is the one used by dealers and collectors. ¹ The ground was often an opaque pale turquoise glaze, and parts meant for gilding were sometimes built up in clay relief before the first firing. ^{1 2}

Lane holds that the most elaborate pieces are the earliest, with large figures, after which a "miniature" taste prevailed, and that some were probably painted by the illuminators of Saljuq manuscripts, few of which survive: among them a dish with a battle scene whose combatants are labelled by name, and a small beaker with episodes from the story of Bizhan in Firdawsi's Shahnama. ² Other scenes include the hunting of Bahram Gur and the triumph of Faridun. ²

Rayy, Kashan and perhaps Sava practised the technique, though their schools cannot yet be told apart with certainty; rare experimental pieces combine minai colours with Kashan-style lustre. ² Lane warns that painted dates on minai are often fraudulent additions, but holds that the ware arose in the last quarter of the twelfth century and had passed its best by the Mongol invasions of the 1220s; Abu al-Qasim says that in his time (1301) the "seven-colour" wares were no longer made. ^{2 3}