An Exceptionally Rare Early Abbasid Lustre-Glazed Dish Fragment, Persia or Mesopotamia, 9th Century

of shallow form with gently sloping sides moulded and lustre-glazed, and decorated with a kufic inscription in three lines, the central line heightened with copper green on a dotted ground ringed by a border of inward-pointing palmette leaves on stems separated by small medallions

Restructured from fragments, the missing parts filled with plexi-glass, glaze in fine condition, as viewed
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A flourishing network of international trading links in the early Abbasid period stimulated a revolution in pottery production. The arrival of high-fired ceramics from China raised awareness amongst Muslim potters to the potential of the ceramic medium. The development of new and costly techniques such as lustre firing saw pottery elevated to the status of a luxury ware for the first time in the Middle East. 

This beautiful fragment belongs to a distinctive group of moulded wares which were pre-fired and then had a layer of lustre added to the glaze and fired again to produce a brilliant golden effect. These wares can be regarded as the earliest experiments in lustre decoration on pottery and as such are important precursors to the great lustre-ware tradition.

The shapes and raised designs derive from metalwork, imitating gold repoussé work, but the fact that the vessels are made of ceramic and not precious metal, would not have been lost on the more pious members of Abbasid society who may have invoked the orthodox injunction against the use of precious metal. The fact that piety may have been a contributing factor in the development of lustre decoration on pottery was already noted by Arthur Lane (Lane 1947).

Approximately fifteen of these moulded lustre-glazed dishes are known: two in the Louvre, and single examples in the Freer Gallery, Washington, the V&A, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Metropolitan, New York, The David Collection, Copenhagen (von Folsach 2001, pp.128-129, no.99), the Nasser D. Khalili Collection and other public and private collections. Nine have geometrical designs and a small number have kufic inscriptions, including a dish in the British Museum which is closest to the present example (see Pancaroglu, Oya, Perpetual Glory, Chicago, 2007, fig. 14). One of the largest and finest in the group is the dish in the Freer Gallery (Pope and Ackermann 1938, vol V, pl.567A; Lane 1947, pl.5B; Atil 1973, no.2, pp.16-17). Fragments are recorded at Fustat and Susa in southern Iran, and related sherd material can be found in the study collections of the Benaki Museum, the British Museum and the V&A.

inscriptions
A suggested possible reading:

khudh rabbika al ... la

'Take your Lord ...., not ....'