This Iranian hookah base is decorated in blue, red and brown painted floral motif rising from a footed bowl and a lobed medallion with a deer on white ground. The neck and mouth has a Qajar copper mount engraved with mythical beasts and figures surrounded by dense vegetation. Chinese blue and white porcelains found great favor in Iran during the Safavid period (1502-1736). As a result, numerous models were imitated and locally produced. Iranian blue and white ceramics, such as the proposed example, reveal both the reverence felt by Iranian potters for the original Chinese models as well as their own creativity as they added different painted designs to the surface.
