Bowl
900-50 (made)
| Place of origin |
Iraqi potters began to decorate their white earthenwares with lustre, adapting a technique used in glassmaking. The pottery was glazed and fired, and then painted with silver or copper oxide pigments. After refiring and burnishing, the pattern shone like gold. Making lustre requires great skill, and production shifted around the Middle East as potters moved, taking their expertise with them. After 1050, they used the techniques on fritwares as well as earthenwares.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Tin-glazed earthenware with lustre decoration |
| Brief description | Bowl, whiteware, painted in yellow lustre with inscribed medallions; Iraq (probably Basra), 900-950 |
| Physical description | Bowl, buff-coloured earthenware, covered in a tin-opacified white glaze, painted in silver-rich yellow lustre with three large roundels in reserves with repeat inscriptions in contour panels on dot-filled circle ground and three smaller circles with stippled grounds in reserves against a solid ground. The exterior with concentric circles and dots. |
| Gallery label |
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| Object history | Purchased for 8,000 fr. from Mr. Nazar-Aga, 3 Avenue Pierre Ier de Serbie, Paris |
| Summary | Iraqi potters began to decorate their white earthenwares with lustre, adapting a technique used in glassmaking. The pottery was glazed and fired, and then painted with silver or copper oxide pigments. After refiring and burnishing, the pattern shone like gold. Making lustre requires great skill, and production shifted around the Middle East as potters moved, taking their expertise with them. After 1050, they used the techniques on fritwares as well as earthenwares. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.99-1929 |
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| Record created | June 25, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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