Dish, whiteware, with blue leaves and green splashes; Iraq (probably Basra), 850-950.

Large flat dish with broad low flaring rim, covered with an opaque white surface of tin-opacifed lead-glaze and in painted with four groups of green splashes from the rim alternating with four frond devices in painted in blue.

A limited range of bold, simple designs were used on Abbasid whitewares with decoration in blue. They consist of floral patterns, geometric forms and inscriptions or pseudo-inscriptions. Human and animal forms are rare: the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has a shallow dish with a fish painted in cobalt blue filling the central field.

Various Islamic wares from this early period have splashed decoration in the form of splashes or dabs in green or brown pigment. They have been found as far apart as Fustat in Egypt, Samarra in northern Iraq, Nishapur in Khurasan, and Samarqand in Central Asia. The great influence of Chinese ceramics on those of the Islamic Middle East might suggest that this decorative technique was copied from the mottled Chinese stonewares made in the Tang period (AD 618-907), and known as sancai. However, it is not clear that sancai wares were ever exported to the Middle East, as they were produced by the Chinese as a special ware used only for imperial tombs. Furthermore, their production seems to have ceased around the middle of the 8th century AD. Indeed, the technique of splashing a pigment on to a bowl is not a difficult one for a potter to discover for himself (unlike the lustre technique, for example), and splashed decoration may well have been a local invention.

The register states "Samarra type, but probably found at Rayy", though no justification for this is given.

This large flat dish is a beautiful example of a type of Islamic pottery known as Abbasid whiteware: it was produced in Iraq after the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs had established their capital there in AD 750. During the period that followed, fine white Chinese porcelains began to be imported, and in response local potters invented a white glaze that allowed them to imitate the Chinese whitewares. They did this by adding tin oxides to the traditional lead glaze: the tin oxide formed a suspension which made the glaze look white.

There was a considerable degree of experimentation with the glaze recipe, with varying quantities of lead and tin affecting the opacity and whiteness of the glaze. This dish is an example of a successful mixture of these minerals, and the consistent whiteness forms a ‘canvas’ for the decoration. The simple ‘frond’ designs were painted into the glaze with a blue pigment derived from cobalt. The tendency of the cobalt to melt into the glaze has been described as having an effect like 'ink on snow'. Copper was used to achieve the intense green of the splashes seen on this dish.

C.65-1934