Yellow Glazed Earthenware Bowl

[Jamila]

Part 2 of Jamila's response:
In some cases, the potter would then invert the vessel and immediately dip a portion of the upside down vessel in a bucket of slip, thus providing an extra band of the white slip on the exterior.  An alternative was to grip the footring, and invert the whole vessel in the slip, up to the footring.  This gave a good base for all the glazing.  If the reverse view of the vessel show a kind of square area of clay showing through the glaze around the footrim, this tends to show that the vessel has been dipped SIDEways into the slip and rotated a quarter turn until it is all covered.  All this would tend to depend on the weight of the vessel and the dexterity of the craftsperson.
Once this layer had thoroughly dried and the whole vessel had been fired and cooled, the yellow iron glaze would be applied.  Because the white slip acts as a buffer, the yellow glaze usually works fine.  Where there are brown bubbles, it could be because: a. there was some extra organic matter in that part of the vessel that burned up through the slip and glaze  b. there was some extra iron there, that did the same. c. something fell on the glaze during firing eg some iron rich ash or something else within the kiln. (Part 3 follows)

[Jamila]

Part 3 of Jamila's answer:
Normally such vessels that have been collected, are decorated ([link removed by admin] please post only links to scholarly institutions, museums, or other well known sources, not to commercial sites - thank you)  If you look at ours marked AB3 and AB1, you'll be able to see the difference the white slip makes - AB3's design is made with white slip, and then the whole fired vessel is glazed with the yellow.  AB1 is completely slipped and then decorated with oxides mixed with water, and glaze.
Please NEVER use solvents on this kind of thing.  These glazes are slightly crazed, due to the clay/glaze fit, and solvent will run into the cracks under your glaze.
For the same reason you should never use these vessels with acidic or liquid foods.  Solid and dry foods are fine.
Hope this helps!

[kardinalisimo]

So, Jamila, what is your final opinion. Is this Afgan/Iran pottery. If so, any suggestion on the age?

[Jamila]

Hi there - could be Afghan, but without seeing it it's hard to really tell, especially re how old.  I don't know Iranian ceramics very well except the ones I'm personally interested in. I suggest you contact the national museum of Kabul and email them the photos to see if they can help: info_at_nationalmuseum.af 
Hope that will clarify things for you.

Otherwise could be some sort of rustic European?  I would tend not to think so though, given the reverse and the footring.

Warmly
Jamila