The Fitzwilliam Museum : Lustreware in the Fitzwilliam

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Maker/s	Unknown (potter)
Collection	Frank Brangwyn Collection
Category	fritware (stonepaste) Islamic pottery (sub-category)lustreware (sub-category)
Name	dish
School/Style	Seljuk Monumental style
Description	fritware with cream and blue glazes painted with turquoise, blue and lustre pinkish-buff fritware, wheel thrown, with a pitted, blue and cream crazed glaze painted under the glaze with turquoise and blue pigment and over the glaze in lustre. Shape: hemispherical dish with a flange rim and low foot ring. Interior: on the rim, half crescents are painted in lustre, with irregular blue stains from the exterior glaze. A roughly painted painted blue cross with turquoise diagonal stripes in the four quarters covers the interior. Broadly coinciding with the blue cross, vertical friezes of Arabic script (kufic) are painted in lustre. Each quarter is divided into three triangular panels, with the central panel, roughly coinciding with the turquoise under glaze paint, containing an articulated palmette on a scrolling vine, painted in reserve against a lustred background. The flanking panels each contain scrolling vegetation painted in lustre. Exterior: a blue glaze runs unevenly over the body to a point just above the foot ring.
Production Place	Iran (potter) (country) () Iranian (potter) (nationality) ()
Technique Description	pinkish-buff fritware, wheel thrown, with a pitted, blue and cream crazed glaze painted with turquoise and blue pigment and lustre.
Dimensions	height: (whole): 7.5 cm width: (whole): 36.7 cm diameter: (rim): 36.7 cm diameter: (base): 16 cm weight: (whole): 1412 g
Period	late 12th Century
Date	circa 1179 to 1198
Provenance	bought: Brangwyn, Frank 1935 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection) Frank Brangwyn RA, from whom purchased Purchased with the Glaisher Fund
Inscriptions/Marks	inscription Position: interior surface Method: painted Content: Description: vertical friezes of script are painted in lustre largely over blue pigment Interpretation: Language: Arabic script (cursive) label Position: inside foot Method: printed, typed, hand written Content: "LENT BY" (printed in black) /Brangwyn (typed in purple) / "138" (hand written in black); "80 " (hand written in pencil and crossed out) Description: rectangular paper label with serrated edge around upper and left hand edge adhered to exterior base, partially obscured by a Fitzwilliam Museum accession label Interpretation: Possibly Victoria and Albert Museum label Language: English inscription Position: inside foot Method: hand written Content: 138 Description: inscribed directly onto the surface of the vessel, on the exterior base in black ink Language: English inscription Position: interior foot Method: painted Content: illegible, possibly Arabic Description: painted in brown directly onto the surface Language: Possibly Arabic
Documentation	Watson, Oliver (1985) Persian Lustre Ware, London: Faber and Faber Limited [page: 45-67] [comments: Cf. vessels with similar under glaze paint and radiating designs, catalogue number 22 (p. 58) and 23 (p. 59) and Cf. vessel form fig. 1 (p. 50). Ref. on monumental style] Watson, Oliver (2004) Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London: Thames & Hudson [page: 346-361] [comments: Cf. similar decorative theme with radiating panel design and painted cross see catalogue number Cat.O.6 (p. 351). Ref. on Iranian lusterware] Mason, Robert, B. (2004) Shine Like the Sun: Lustre-Painted and Associated Pottery from the Medieval Middle East, California: Maznda Publications [page: 124-130] [comments: Cf. motif KL.4 (p. 149), Cf. vessel form ASH.06, MMA.49 and MMA.16, Ref. Kahsan Lustre-painted Group Two and dating]
Other Notes	Similar vessel in the Louvre collection see OA 7253, accessible through http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=24831
Accession Number	C.108-1935 (Applied Arts) (Reference Number: 71286; Input Date: 2004-03-11 / Last Edit: 2011-07-22)

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