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Bowl
unknown - Enlarge image
Bowl
- Place of origin:
Basra, Iraq (probably, made)
- Date:
10th century (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Earthenware, with lustre decoration over an opaque white glaze
- Museum number:
C.62-1981
- Gallery location:
Islamic Middle East, room 42, case 2W
This bowl features an image of a seated drinker, who is depicted in a rather naïve style. The bowl belongs to a type of Islamic pottery known as Abbasid lustreware, which was produced in Iraq after the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs had established their capital there in AD 750. During this period, Iraqi potters developed a type of earthenware with an opaque white glaze in imitation of the white porcelains then being imported from China. They subsequently applied the technique of staining glass with metallic pigments to this whiteware and in the process created the world's first lustre-painted ceramics.
The decoration here is in the monochrome yellow lustre typical of surviving Abbasid lustrewares. After a short period of experimenting with polychrome and two-colour lustre decoration, Abbasid potters settled on this yellow pigment. The reason may have been its greater dependability during the firing phase. The more likely reason, however, was that it resembled gold. Achieving a high quality yellow-gold lustre was difficult, because the lustre will not develop properly unless the firing conditions are precise. It was also expensive, since the pigment used was silver oxide. These wares also cost a good deal to produce because the tin oxide required to make the glaze opaque and white had to be imported.
