Monochrome glazed ware (Nishapur)

A considerable number of vessels found at Nishapur were glazed in a single colour of lead glaze, over a white or coloured engobe and occasionally straight on the clay. ¹ Wilkinson says the coloured glaze was an innovation in eastern Iranian pottery of the ninth century though common elsewhere in Islam; monochrome ware had been made in Iraq since Sasanian times, but on the Iranian plateau it was known only from a few imports. ¹

At Nishapur monochrome vessels were made from the ninth century on: bowls, dishes and assemblies of dishes, jars, pitchers, ewers and lamps; none of the bowls has a foot ring. ¹ Wilkinson notes an association of shape and colour: green, by far the most popular, was favoured for small jars, pitchers and lamps, while brown appears only on medium and small jars. ¹

Blue was hardly used at Nishapur in the ninth and tenth centuries, since copper cannot give it in a lead glaze and cobalt was not then used in Khurasan; with the later alkaline glazes and the new body cobalt became fashionable. ¹ Brown, sometimes a rich chocolate, comes from manganese, and it is sometimes hard to tell whether the glaze took its colour directly or from a manganese engobe. ¹