*A PORCELAIN WATER PIPE (QALYAN) BOTTLE AND STEM CUPPROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTIONPossibly France or Germany and Iran, late 19th centuryComprising a typical bell-shaped water pipe base, resting on a circular foot and rising to a tapering ringed neck, with a reinforced rim, the white porcelain body painted in fuchsia, gold and polychromes, the decoration consisting of a band of four oval roundels with the official and military portraits of Naser al-Din Shah, the Qajar King of Persia (r. 1848 - 1896), interspersed with Western-inspired floral festoons and birds, around the neck a similar decorative band, 26.5cm high; and a similarly decorated stem cup to hold the brazier of the water pipe, 15.2cm high.This water pipe is likely to be a European export market production (France and Germany) targeted to and commissioned by an Iranian audience. The European origin is betrayed not only by the choice of the material (i.e. porcelain was never in use in Iran), but also by the style of decoration and portraiture. Similar water pipes would have been considered a lavish exotica piece in the 19th and 20th-century Qajar Iranian homes. Noteworthy of mention is the fact that the use and design of this water pipe were very foreign to European potters, who possibly drew their inspiration for the shape from 19th-century French pottery lamp stands.