**First Time At Auction**

North Africa, Morocco, Fez region, ca. 19th century CE. A wonderful pottery bowl known as a mokhfia, presenting a round bottom and thick walls that swoop outwards to a wide rim above a shallow basin, all sitting upon a ring-form base. Adorned in hues of lemon, cobalt, seafoam green, and black atop a white glaze ground, the interior of the elegant vessel features an elaborate decoration of a flower within a flower, all embellished with abstract geometric and linear designs and surrounded by a vegetal motif border. Alternatively, the exterior of the vessel exhibits a horizontal, zigzag striation that encircles the rim. Mokhfias are used for serving couscous and are pierced through the foot for displaying on a wall when not in use. Note the vegetal fiber rope that is tied to the foot of this example for suspension. An old plaster repair visible in one area of the rim demonstrates that the dish was so prized that its owner took care to repair it with another medium rather than replace it. Size: 12.3" Diameter x 5.5" H (31.2 cm x 14 cm)

Provenance: ex-Ashland University Museum, Ashland, Ohio, USA, donated to Ashland University between July 1994 to December 1998

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#168884

Old repair to rim. Repaired from several pieces with break lines visible. Losses to rim. Expected nicks, chips, and abrasions throughout, commensurate with age. Otherwise, very nice with impressive remaining pigments.