A Blue and White Underglaze Safavid Huqqa Base, 17th Century – Iran.
This small portable huqqa base is beautifully coloured in a typical cobalt blue and white palette resembling the famous Wanli period of Chinese porcelaine. It is typically characterized by a free style brush stroke technique, normally having figural or birds as their focus points. In this case, the main ficus is of a central bird motif within a natural floral scape within a reserve.
The quality of the underglaze painting of this Safavid example is particularly exquisite as it shows very little or no bleeding of the cobalt blue glaze. Normally, this bleeding is seen in almost all Safavid examples. The two openings at the top of this huqqa would have been utilized to attach a vertical woodennor metal stem carrying the tobacco burner and the other opening to accomodate the hose.