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 Monumental style
Description	Fritware with white and blue glaze under lustre paint Pinkish-buff fritware, wheel thrown with white and pitted blue glaze, both crazed and painted in yellow-brown lustre. Shape: hemispherical dish with a flange rim and a low foot ring. Interior: decoration entirely in reserve against a lustred background. On the rim, a frieze of small circles is enclosed above and below by concentric lines; blue pigment from the exterior glaze forms irregular spots of colour. The central decoration features a horseman, seated on a harnessed horse adorned with a starred blanket. The horseman wears a hat and a tunic; the latter decorated with groups of dots that match the larger groups of dots on the horse’s body. The background contains scrolling vines with palmette leaves. Exterior: a lustre band decorates the rim, while the blue glaze on the body extends to the upper foot ring.
Production Place	Iran (potter) (country) () Iranian (potter) (nationality) ()
Technique Description	Pinkish-buff fritware, wheel thrown with white and pitted blue glaze, both crazed and painted in yellow-brown lustre
Dimensions	height: (whole): 5.3 cm width: (whole): 25.5 cm diameter: (rim): 25.3 cm diameter: (base): 9.7 cm weight: (whole): 462 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	label Position: base exterior Method: handwritten in pencil Content: illegible, possibly arabic Description: square paper label with torn edges
Documentation	Sotheby's (1986) Islamic Works of Art, Carpets and Textiles, London [page: 21] 15 October 1986) [comments: Publ. lot 97, withdrawn. Estimate £300-500] Lane, Arthur (1947) Early Islamic Pottery, London: Faber and Faber [comments: Cf. similar decorative style and mounted horsemen see catalogue numbers 52C and 53C] Watson, Oliver (1985) Persian Lustre Ware, London: Faber and Faber Limited [page: 45-67] [comments: Cf. style of decoration and with identical scrolling vines see catalogue numbers 9 and 10 (p. 47); Cf. vessel form see figure 1 (p. 50); Ref. on ‘monumental’ style] Watson, Oliver (2004) Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London: Thames & Hudson [page: 351] [comments: Cf. similar exterior decoration but on a different vessel form see catalogue number Cat.O.7] Mason, Robert, B. (2004) Shine Like the Sun: Lustre-Painted and Associated Pottery from the Medieval Middle East, California: Maznda Publications [page: 152] [comments: Cf. similar vessel form see figure 6.8, catalogue number ASH10]
Other Notes	Conforms to Watson’s monumental style, although Sotheby’s refer to the bowl as ‘Rayy monumental’ style
Accession Number	C.435-1991 (Applied Arts) (Reference Number: 75086; Input Date: 2004-03-11 / Last Edit: 2011-07-22)

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