PERSIAN POTTERY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 82, 8 April 1931, Page 13

PERSIAN POTTERY

AN ANCIENT LEGEND

Fifteen hundred years ago a Shah held sway over Persia whoso name was Bah ram Got, writes F.G.W., in an English paper. Everybody in Persia praised him, "declaring him to bo a very mighty hunter indeed—everybody, that is, except his favourite harp player, a bewitching beauty called Azada. .She would not believe thn talcs that were told oC his-magic with the bow and arrow until she had seen proof of it with her own eyes. -'.'Lot .me be with you at the hunt, my lord," she urged, '"and let my eyes followed the flight of your koe'u awow." She pleaded so persistently, and withal so sweetly, that he at last granted her desire. The story of whaf. happened at the hunt hns'becti pictured by Persian artists almost since the. day thai. Azada had her wish. it has been painted cx-

qiiisitely on fragile pottery, woven into designs' of marvellously beautiful carpets, used, in fact, in every form of Persian art. Nowhere is it more delightfully illustrated than on two twelfth-century plates, included in the American collections lent to the Exhibition of Persian Art at the Koyal Academy. Every woman who sees these jjiatos wants to know the story that lies behind the quaint design. Bahrain Gor is depicted mounted on _ a camel, with Azada. riding pillion behind him. The tale of what befell during their expedition was told the writer by Dr. Phyllis Ackerman, who is the wife of Professor Arthur Upham Pope, director of the exhibition. Dr. Ackerman has expert .knowledge of Persian art, and has travelled in many parts of the world with her husband securing the loan of all kinds of treasures for the exhibition. "As they rode along," she said, "they saw a gazelle. Drawing his bow,- Bahram Gor let loose an arrow which pierced the animal's ear. He explained to Azada that this was just to tickle the gazelle. 'Now, watch! ' he commanded. As he spoke the gazelle put up a foot to scratch the irritated ear, and at that moment the Shah shot another arrow which pinned tho foot. He turned with a proud smile to Azada, expecting her admiration, but she was furious. 'Oh, you are cruel, cruel, to hurt such a beautiful little animal so!' she cried, and scolded him for several minutes without stopping. Bahram Gor also grew furious, and when at last he could get a word in ho shouted: 'I wish by all that's sacred that I hadn't brought you with mo. I ought to have expected this sort of thing.' "