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 fragment
Name	dish
School/Style	Seljuk Monumental style
Description	Fritware with blue and white glaze painted with lustre Buff fritware fragment, wheel thrown, with blue (pitted) and white glaze, both crazed and decorated with yellow-brown lustre. Shape: roughly rectangular fragment forms profile of a dish with wide, everted rim and a low foot ring. Interior: on the lip painted lustre forms a frieze of scrolling vegetation, enclosed, above and below, by concentric bands both of which are splashed with blue from the exterior glaze. On the body, painted in reserve against a lustre background, a frieze depicts a seated figure wearing a robe decorated with series of three dots. The figure is flanked either side by arabesques painted in lustre. On the base another figure, also painted in reserve against a lustred background but only partly visible due the fragmentary nature of the dish, wears a headdress. Exterior: a band of lustre decorates the rim and a frieze of Arabic script (probably cursive) is painted faintly in lustre on the upper body. The blue glaze covers the surface unevenly to a half way point on the foot ring.
Production Place	Iran (potter) (country) () Iranian (potter) (nationality) ()
Technique Description	Buff fritware fragment, wheel thrown, with blue (pitted) and white glaze, both crazed and decorated with yellow-brown lustre
Dimensions	height: (whole): 10.2 cm width: (whole): 21.7 cm diameter: (rim): 24 cm diameter: (base): 10 cm weight: (whole): 699 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: exterior body Method: painted in lustre Description: a frieze of script is painted faintly in lustre on the upper body Language: arabic (probably cursive)
Documentation	Watson, Oliver (1985) Persian Lustre Ware, London: Faber and Faber Limited [page: 45-67] [comments: Cf. vessel form see figure 1. (p. 50); C/F scrolling vegetal decoration; arabesques and seated figures with three dots on robes see catalogue 28 (p. 62). Ref. for monumental style] Watson, Oliver (2004) Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London: Thames & Hudson [page: 350] [comments: Cf. Arabic inscription on blue glaze on vessel exterior see catalogue number: Cat. O. 5]
Other Notes
Accession Number	C.438-1991 (Applied Arts) (Reference Number: 75093; Input Date: 2004-03-11 / Last Edit: 2011-07-22)

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