Neck fragment of an 'Alhambra vase', tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration, made in Spain, probably Málaga, 1250–1350

Description
Tin-glazed earthenware with lustre-painted decoration. A red bodied fragment from the base of the neck of an ‘Alhambra vase’, with a cream coloured tin-glaze, decorated in brownish lustre. The lower section of the neck has a running, knotted pattern. Above it is a horizontal band of repeating, pointed diagonals (chevron ornament). The upper section consists of two rectangular panels divided by borders of solid lustre, the vertical border in the form of a ridge. One contains sebka decoration (a reticulated pattern, arched lobes overlaid to form a lattice) with leaf forms, and the other contains arabesques (vegetal scrolls of fleshy leaves and split palmettes) on a dotted ground. The fragment is not glazed on its interior.

Technical Description
BODY: buff-red eathenware. Quite coarse with some inclusions and air pockets. Thickly potted - presumably to allow for size of original jar?

GLAZE: opaque white earthenware with greenish-coloured luster decoration hand painted on top. Glaze is crazed; dark lines ingrained with dirt. Lustre is also worn at high points. Various chips and losses wher decoration stands proud. Glaze also has various hard acretions on surface, presumably from burial?

TECHNIQUE: moulded? Unglazed interior surface appears quite irregular and uneven. Relief decoration may have been from mould.

Given by G.D. Hornblower, Esq.

History Object This object was found at Fustat (Egypt). It was presented to the V&A in 1921 by Mr. G. D. Hornblower, along with more than 1000 other pottery fragments.

Notes from V&A Archives: A selection of ‘1100 and more specimens’, from Fostat and neighbourhood’, including ‘imported ware from Samarra’. (Letter from Hornblower to Bernard Rackham, 4th January 1921).

Letter from Hornblower 07/02/1921: Fragments to be packed and sent by Mr. E. Hatoun, Cairo. ‘To prevent chipping or abrasion, the fragments will be packed in small palm-stick cages, which are exceedingly tough and elastic, and the cages then packed in wooden boxes. The case ‘must first be presented at the Arabic Museum, Cairo, to be sealed’. ‘P.s. I propose £E200 as value for insurance’.
Comparative Study
The decoration is very similar to the decoration of the neck of the Alhambra vase in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, inv. F317.

The decoration is also similar to the pair of vases found in the Church of Madonna del Paradiso di Mazzara del Vallo in SW Sicily, which may have been in Sicily since the late 15th century or earlier. These are now in the Galleria Reggionale in Palermo and the Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid (see Jarrones de la Alhambra, cat. nos. 7 and 9). They have been dated to the late 13th to early 14th century, indicating a possible date for this vase fragment.

Three other fragments of Alhambra vases were found at Fustat and are now in the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo (see Casamar 1961).

Exhibitions
This fragment is on permanent display in the V&A's World Ceramics gallery (Gallery 145) in a display entitled 'Arab Innovation and European Tradition'.

C.787-1921