A Samanid Pottery Dish Iran, Nishapur, 10th century Covered in a creamy white slip, and painted with foliated kufic script, the exterior left plain. Diam: 34.5 cm. Provenance: Private UK Collection. Condition: restored. Catalogue note: Samanid potters can be credited with the invention and perfection of slip-painted pottery – in which clarity of design was achieved by painting brownish pigment mixed with slip on a white engobe which is painted over the red earthenware. These ceramics are amongst the first pieces produced in the Islamic world where epigraphy is the sole ornament. Large numbers of them were excavated at Nishapur and Samarqand (Afrasiyab) and although none is dated, they are roughly datable to the 10th century and a period that corresponds to Samanid rule (874-1005).