Abstract Neyshabur Pottery Plate – High Copy

Both Professors in Art and handicrafts, Behrouz Bokaeian and Marjan Movahed are a couple who initially aimed to study the graphical changes through centuries in a collection of pottery plates. Although this collection was originally made in Neyshabur, each piece of it is now kept in a separate museum. This antique collection belongs to 9-10 century A.D, an era of flourishing pottery techniques and designs in Neyshabur. Due to their research, the hardworking couple managed to decipher the very graphical cryptic writings on these plates that were incomprehensible before.

Because of the value this plate collection holds as the only manifestation of a remarkable era in history of Neyshabur, Bokaeian and Movahed decided to reproduce these plates so as to protect its designs and techniques from being destroyed and forgotten.

The plates are made on pottery wheel and after tolerating 8 hours of 900 degrees heat in a kiln, they turn into “biscuit” or “bisque”. Once a plate is out of kiln, the design is drawn on and finally, the glazing process begins. Bokaeian and Movahed put the glaze on the bisque in an uneven and rugged way, so that it takes an antique and aged look, similar to the original historic artworks. At the end, the glazed plate is returned to kiln to go through another firing process of 1000 degrees which stabilizes its glaze and color.