Storage Jar
750-1000 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Storage jars were made in the thousands in the early Islamic period. This example may have contained date syrup or another product, and the jar and its contents were exported throughout the world, to East Africa, South East Asia, China and Japan, where shards have been found. A glaze was essential as the clay was porous, but the turquoise colourant and the undulating trail of pinched clay ornament were expensive additions to a simple storage jar. After the Abbasid caliphate was established in Iraq in AD 750, Muslim merchants developed a direct route to China. The jar is very similar to a type made in parts of Iraq and Iran in the later years of Sasanian rule (about AD 224 to 631), before the Islamic conquest, which continued to be produced.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Earthenware and glaze |
| Brief description | Storage jar with turquoise glaze, southern Iraq or south-west Iran, 750-1000 |
| Physical description | Storage jar, buff coloured earthenware, of ovoid shape four applied loop handles at the neck, the shoulders applied with a thumb-impressed undulating band of clay beads and flowerhead, covered in an alkaline turquoise glaze. |
| Dimensions |
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| Gallery label | Jameel Gallery
Turquoise Storage Jar
Southern Iraq or south-west Iran
950–1100
Decorated simply with a trail of pinched clay and turquoise glaze, this jar is very similar to a type made in parts of Iraq and Iran in later Sasanian times, before the Islamic conquest. Such jars were used locally and to ship goods such as date syrup to destinations as distant as Japan.
Earthenware with applied decoration and coloured glaze
Museum no. Circ.106-1929(Jameel Gallery) |
| Object history | Received from Mons. R. Hormozdian, 33 Rue Bellfond (rue de Bellefond?) |
| Production | "Sasano-Islamic" |
| Summary | Storage jars were made in the thousands in the early Islamic period. This example may have contained date syrup or another product, and the jar and its contents were exported throughout the world, to East Africa, South East Asia, China and Japan, where shards have been found. A glaze was essential as the clay was porous, but the turquoise colourant and the undulating trail of pinched clay ornament were expensive additions to a simple storage jar. After the Abbasid caliphate was established in Iraq in AD 750, Muslim merchants developed a direct route to China. The jar is very similar to a type made in parts of Iraq and Iran in the later years of Sasanian rule (about AD 224 to 631), before the Islamic conquest, which continued to be produced. |
| Bibliographic reference | Tim Stanley ed., with Mariam Rosser-Owen and Stephen Vernoit, Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Middle East, London, V&A Publications, 2004, plate 16
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | CIRC.106-1929 |
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| Record created | August 20, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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