The Fitzwilliam Museum : Lustreware in the Fitzwilliam

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Maker/s	Unknown (potter)
Collection	Henry Scipio Reitlinger
Category	fritware (stonepaste) Islamic pottery (sub-category)lustreware (sub-category)
Name	dish
School/Style	Seljuk miniature style
Description	Fritware with a white glaze, painted with lustre Pinkish fritware, wheel thrown, white, slightly crazed, glaze painted in yellow-brown lustre. Shape: conical dish with wide, everted rim and a low foot ring. Interior: all decoration is painted in lustre. On the lip a frieze of Arabic script (cursive) is enclosed above and below by concentric bands of differing thickness. On the body a roughly drawn pattern, radiating from a central dot in the base, consists of alternating panels of horizontal wavey lines and arabesques with a cross-hatched lozenge at their centre. Exterior: rim decorated with a band of lustre. Radiating from the lower body, panels of interlocking scrolls are separated by a pair of vertical lines, both painted in lustre. Glaze continues to the lower body where it has a reddish tinge, probably resulting from reaction with the lustre. Oval adhesion at one point near rim marks where another vessel touched the dish during firing.
Production Place	Iran (potter) (country) () Iranian (potter) (nationality) ()
Technique Description	Pinkish fritware, wheel thrown, white, slightly crazed, glaze painted with yellow-brown lustre
Dimensions	height: (whole): 7.6 cm width: (whole): 34 cm diameter: (rim): 34 cm diameter: (base): 13.5 cm weight: (whole): 1,031 g
Period	late 12th Century
Date	circa 1179 to 1198
Provenance	bequeathed: Reitlinger, Henry Scipio 1950 (Filtered for: Applied Arts collection) Henry Scipio Reitlinger (d. 1950); Reitlinger Trust, Maidenhead H. S. Reitlinger Bequest 1950; transferred from the Reitlinger Trust, 1991
Inscriptions/Marks	inscription Position: interior lip Method: hand painted in lustre Interpretation: Quranic verse Language: Arabic (cursive script)
Documentation	Watson, Oliver (1985) Persian Lustre Ware, London: Faber and Faber Limited [page: 50, 68-85] [comments: Cf. similar arabesque decoration, with cross-hatch lozenge design, see catalogue number 53. C/F vessel shape see figure 1 (p. 50) and for Ref. on ‘miniature’ style] Mason, Robert, B. (2004) Shine Like the Sun: Lustre-Painted and Associated Pottery from the Medieval Middle East, California: Maznda Publications [page: 123-130, 149-150] [comments: Cf. similar arabesque decoration, with cross-hatch lozenge design, see Motif KL.11 (p. 149). C/F vessel form figure 6.6, MMA.49 (p. 150). Ref. for dating of Kashan lustre ware]
Other Notes	C/F exterior decoration on catalogue number 1956.28, in the Ashmolean collection, available from http://islamicceramics.ashmolean.org/Thumbnails/kashthumb2.htm
Accession Number	C.431-1991 (Applied Arts) (Reference Number: 75064; Input Date: 2004-03-11 / Last Edit: 2011-07-22)

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