Two fine and rare hispano-moresque lustre pottery albarelli or drug jars, Valencia, 1470-1500

a near pair, each of tall waisted form on a thick broad foot, with narrow shoulder, short cylindrical neck and everted rim, decorated in cobalt blue and overglaze lustre with horizontal registers of ivy leaves on curling stems

both in overall good condition, the left with hole to the base approx. 2in. in diameter, chips and abrasions to extremities, minor areas of loss to glaze, the other with crack running across the base, chips and abrasions to extremities and minor areas of loss to glaze (visible in catalogue illustration), as viewed
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

An albarello of similar design is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Ray 2000, no.187, p.87). Ray notes: "The absence of veining and distinctive subsiduary motifs indicates a date late in the [fifteenth] century, as does the tone of the lustre. This may be the final development of the ivy leaf before it gave way to the dot-and-stalk pattern... Three drug jars of this type are in the Musée de Cluny (nos 2778, 2756, 2757). Vessels of this type appear frequently in historic French pharmacies." (ibid. p.87).

A fragment from a dish with similar ivy-leaf decoration (also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see Ray 2000, no.188) recovered from the rubbish heaps at Fustat indicates that this form of Valencian lustre pottery found a market in Mamluk Egypt in the fifteenth century. Indeed, judging by the high volume of sherds from Fustat, Spanish lustre was in high demand in Egypt, no doubt a consequence of the demise of the Damascus lustre tradition in the wake of Tamerlane's sack of that city in 1401.

Further evidence of the consumption of Valencian pottery in Mamluk Egypt and its influence upon local production can be charted in the assimilation of the distinctive ivy leaf motif into the varied repertory of design practised by the ceramic workshops of Fustat in the fifteenth century. See, for instance, a Mamluk pottery dish in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo (inv. no.15986) in which the Valencian-inspired motif is paraphrased in underglaze blue and black (see Atil 1981, no.79, p.158).