Dish thumbnail 1
Dish thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 137, The Curtain Foundation Gallery

Dish

ca. 1188-1268 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Port St. Symeon (made)

Dish, buff earthenware, of shallow form with a broad flat everted rim with distinctive raised inner edge, narrow foot-ring. The front is covered with white slip, which has been incised with an interlaced (also described as 'tetralobed guilloche' and 'centriform knotted') motif issuing feather or leaf motifs in reserve panels with cross-hatched panels in the interstices in the well and a running split-palmette scroll around the rim within concentric line bands. Details are splashed in copper-green and antimony- or lead-yellowish-brown pigment. Covered in a clear glaze. Restored.


Object details

Categories
Ceramics
Earthenware
Slipware
Object type
Dish
Materials and techniques
Earthenware with incised decoration (Coloured Sgraffito Ware).
Earthenware
Incising
Brief description
Dish, earthenware, slip-covered and incised with an interlaced foliate motif, with splashes of green and yellow under the glaze. North Syria, Port Saint Symeon (Al-Mina), near Antioch, 1188-1268.
Physical description
Dish, buff earthenware, of shallow form with a broad flat everted rim with distinctive raised inner edge, narrow foot-ring. The front is covered with white slip, which has been incised with an interlaced (also described as 'tetralobed guilloche' and 'centriform knotted') motif issuing feather or leaf motifs in reserve panels with cross-hatched panels in the interstices in the well and a running split-palmette scroll around the rim within concentric line bands. Details are splashed in copper-green and antimony- or lead-yellowish-brown pigment. Covered in a clear glaze. Restored.
Dimensions
  • Taken from register diameter: 26.5cm
Styles
Medieval
Byzantine
Credit line
Given on behalf of the Archaeological Expedition to North Syria, by Sir Leonard Woolley
Object history
Found on the Crusaders' site of Port St. Symeon (Al Mina) near Antioch.
Production
Found on the Crusaders' site of Port Saint Symeon (Al Mina), near Antioch.
Bibliographic references
  • Lane, Arthur, Medieval finds at Al Mina in North Syria, London, 1938
  • Woolley, Sir Leonard, A Forgotten Kingdom, Baltimore, 1953
  • Sevcenko, Nancy P., 'Some Thirteenth Century Pottery at Dumbarton Oaks', Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 28 (1974)
  • Frierman, Jay D., Medieval Ceramics VI to XIII Centuries, exhibition catalogue, University of California, Los Angeles, 1975
  • Redford, Scott N. and Blackman, M. James, "Neutron Activation Analysis of Medieval Ceramics from Kinet, Turkey, especially Port Saint Symeon Ware."Ancient Near Eastern Studies; 42 (2005) pp. 83-186, Group II-MM, p. 142, Figure 26.
Collection
Ceramics Collection
Accession number
C.299-1937

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O282635/dish-unknown/
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