A Raqqa blue and black pottery albarello, Syria, first half 13th century

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Christie's London, 26 April 1994, lot 244.

Albarellos, or storage jars, from this period were sometimes faceted and decorated in a spectrum of glazes ranging from lustre with cobalt blue to black with a turquoise glaze or as in this case, turquoise and black on a white ground. For a comprehensive study of Raqqa ceramics during the short-lived resurgence of production in the late twelfth/early thirteenth century, see Jenkins-Madina 2006. Notable examples are in museum collections world wide such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no.48.113.12), the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (inv. no.PO-68-1999), the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. no.EA1956.178), and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no.C.21-1956).