C Spain

Nearly cylindrical jar of tin-glazed earthenware, painted in dark blue and brown lustre. Round the lower part of the jar, the Arabic word alafias is repeated in conventional characters. The sides of the jar are slightly in-curved, the shoulder and base are bevelled, and the neck expands outwards to a lip. The neck and upper part of the body are painted with hatched squares in a blue grid. Round the middle above the inscription is a diaper pattern of crosses within squares and on the shoulder is a band of foliated scrolls.

Bought from from the Henry Wallis Collection

Historical significance: The jar and the Hispano-moresque style in which it is decorated originate from Spain.
In the eighth-century, Moorish armies established a flourishing province of medieval Islamic civilization on the Iberian Peninsula. In the fourteenth-century, Malaga in southern Spain became internationally celebrated for wares painted in "gold lustre". This technique, perfected centuries earlier in the Near East had probably been transmitted via Egypt. When Christian navies interfered with the export trade from Malaga, some Moorish potters moved north to settle near Christian Valencia. The rich clay-beds of the River Turia had supplied Valencian potters for centuries with the raw materials for a range of ceramics. The main centres of production were at Paterna and Manises, situated on opposite sides of the river. (Ray considers Manises the probable place of origin for the present jar). At first the Moorish potters made relatively simple wares, but after 1400 the kilns at Manises produced superb lustreware, often decorated with armorial designs for Spanish and Italian customers. Early pieces, such as the present example continued the strongly arabesque style of Malaga, with Arabic inscriptions and details in a heavy blackish blue.
Lustreware of whatever quality required expert knowledge and special care was taken over anything made for a rich patron. Each piece bore witness to a very high level of technical skill, unrivalled anywhere in Europe at the time.
Several pieces of Fifteenth-century lustre and blue wares in the hispano-moresque style survive. In Spanish literature this is referred to as 'estilo persa' (Persian style).The alafias motif occurs on earlier lustreware from Malaga and on Fourteenth-century Valencian wares. While the hatched squares occur on several other drug-jars, the grid with the crosses appears to be less common.

Glazed jars were used in different sizes for storing and transporting foodstuffs and drugs, including wine, water, butter, honey and olives.

Valencia Probably Manises

In the fourteenth-century, Malaga in southern Spain became internationally celebrated for wares painted in "gold lustre". This technique, perfected centuries earlier in the Near East had probably been transmitted via Egypt. When Christian navies interfered with the export trade from Malaga, some Moorish potters moved north to settle near Christian Valencia. At first the moorish potters made relatively simple wares, but after 1400 the kilns produced superb lustreware, ceramics with an overglaze painting in lustre, which gives pieces a distinctive metallic sheen. These pieces were often decorated with armorial designs for Spanish and Italian customers. Early pieces, such as the present example continued the strongly arabesque style of Malaga, with Arabic inscriptions and details in a heavy blackish blue.

46-1907