sprinkled glaze technique in the pottery of iran and china

with the development of the silk road in early islam, the pottery art of northern and north-eastern parts of iran were affected by imported chinese pottery. at that time, the most common way of glaze decoration in china was a method called “sancai” which found its way to iran through this business route and became a source of imitation for iranian artists. in this technique, known as glaze, the surface of the pottery was first covered with white color mud or clay, which was then painted by punctuation and colorful touches of oxides of copper, iron and cobalt. after melting in a furnace, these colorful dots made beautiful irregular lines and shapes. this method was used independently and sometimes in combination with other methods both in iran and china. whilesancai was accompanied by a variety of embossed motif techniques in china, the iranian practice of the imported chinese style gradually evolved into an innovative manner after early imitations of chinese artists. the simultaneous use of sgraffito technique, carvings on the surface of the pottery before glaze work and the use of kufic script in an imitation of samarra pottery are among these innovative techniques.