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PERSIAN, SYRIAN, EGYPTIAN AND TURKISH
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See also: PERSIAN, SYRIAN, See also:EGYPTIAN AND See also:TURKISH POTTERY' Formerly, in all See also:general accounts of the See also:potter's See also:art, it was the See also:custom to pass over the See also:period between the fall of the See also:Roman See also:empire and the See also:appearance of the beautiful Persian and Syrian pottery of the See also:early See also:middle ages, as if the intervening centuries had produced nothing worthy of See also:note. Even yet the successive steps by which this beautiful art arose are largely matters of inference and See also:deduction, but it must be See also:borne in mind that while the Greeks and See also:Romans made singularly little use of glaze and painted See also:colour, the Egyptians and the inhabitants of See also:Syria and See also:Mesopotamia had See also:long been noted for their skill in this direction. In discussing the pottery of these peoples we have already Minted out at what a very early period they had See also:developed the See also:production of See also:rich and beautiful coloured glazes—the Egyptians i See examples in colour on See also:Plate V. as a See also:jewel-like decoration of small pieces made in a very sandy See also:paste, or actually carved from See also:
In all these methods we see the continuation of old tradition in simpler forms, but we shall also see that these, in their turn, became the starting-point of much of the See also: medieval pottery of Europe, particularly of See also:Italy and the other See also:southern countries. In the same way, a little farther See also:east, the Persians of See also:Sassanian times seem to have preserved some of the traditions of the potters of See also:Assyria, just as they inherited their skill; and the See also:Assyrian See also:device of raising strong brown outlines See also:round a See also:design to See also:control the flow of coloured glazes, which is exemplified in the See also:Frieze of Archers in the Louvre, was carried on by them, for it appears unchanged in the tiles of the See also:Mosque of Mahommed I. built at See also:Brusa in the 15th See also:century. The intercourse between the Persian and Byzantine empires at this See also:time must have led to a general See also:diffusion of technical knowledge among the pottery centres of the various countries round the eastern end of the Mediterranean, though our knowledge is too fragmentary to furnish sufficient data for any definite placing of the progress made. Our See also:information is mainly derived from the examination of the rubbish mounds at Fostat, or Old See also:Cairo, in Egypt, by Dr See also:Fouquet, and by eager inquirers like See also:
Persian Pottery.—The most important pottery of the nearer East, whether considered on its own merits or from the See also: influence it has exercised on the pottery of later times, is that so highly valued by collectors under the distinctive name of Persian; though much that passes under that name may not have been made in Persia. From the loth to the 16th centuries the crafts-men of Persia were perfect masters of decorative design and colour; and, as potters, they possessed a sense of the forms proper to clay, such as none of the See also:great races of antiquity ever exhibited. The shapes of See also:Greek pottery speak more strongly of See also:metal than of clay, but the best Persian See also:work exhibits a feeling for the material that has rarely been equalled. The shapes are not only true clay-shapes but they are designed so as best to exhibit the qualities of the glaze and colour with which they were to be decorated. Certainly from the 12th to the 16th centuries the pottery of the Persians must See also:rank among the greatest achievements of the potter's art. The See also:ware was shaped from various mixtures such as we have already spoken of—but whether its body was a mixture of white clay with a large See also:pro-portion of sand, or some inferior clay that burnt to a yellowish or red tint, and was surfaced with a fine white coating of siliceous slip, or with a mixture of soda-See also:glass, clay and oxide of See also:tin, which made it whiter still—the one aim was to produce a white pottery. On this white ground—with a coarsish absorbent surface—beautiful patterns, in conventional floral or See also:animal forms, were deftly painted in cobalt-blues, See also:manganese-purples, copper-greens and turquoise, with mixtures for intermediate tints; while a strong brownish-black outline colour was compounded by mixing the oxides of iron and manganese, to be turned into a fine, still black by the addition of a trace of cobalt and later of oxide of See also:chromium. Over this freely painted colour, often used in broad See also:flat masses, a singularly limpid alkaline glaze, generally of considerable thickness, was fired until it just fused; and the resultant effect is of the most rich and brilliant colour relieved on a ground of slightly toned white. Judging from fragments which have been found at Rai, and which can scarcely therefore be later than the 13th century, we find the characteristic Persian See also:style of ornament already developed; dumpy little figures kneeling, See also:standing or See also:riding on grass between See also:cypress trees, or animals and birds similarly disposed, with conventional See also:borders and bands of Cufic See also:inscriptions. Another well-known type of pattern consists of highly conventionalized floral ornament which often runs to a beautiful See also:tracery of " See also:arabesque " lines. The See also:drawing is generally finely outlined with brown or black (a survival of the ancient Assyrian practice), and in the earliest pieces the flat washes of colour are laid in only in cobalt-blue, turquoise or green from copper, and shades of See also:purple and brown from manganese. From the 16th century onwards See also:Chinese influence is strongly See also:felt both in the designs and in the colour schemes, particularly in the wares painted with patterns in blue only (fig.39), which sometimes carry the See also: imitation of Chinese See also:porcelain so far as to See also:bear forged Chinese marks. Finally, Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629) is said to have brought a number of Chinese artificers, among them many potters, to Ispahan, and we find that Chinese porcelain was largely painted at Kingte-Chen, with blue decorations in the Persian See also:taste, so that we cannot be surprised at the growth of a hybrid Perso-Chinese style of decoration. From this period, however, Persian pottery deteriorated both in its technical and See also:artistic aspects. Crudely727 moulded figures in fairly high See also:relief, coloured with an opaque yellow and green as well as with transparent blue and turquoise, began to make their appearance, especially on the famous Persian tiles; and in the 18th century the brown and black outlines of the drawing (a most valuable decorative resource) vanish, and we get brighter and more glittering, yet poorer See also:colours, including a See also:rose-red See also:enamel fired over the glaze, evidently imitated from the Chinese famille-rose porcelains of the 18th century. The finest work appears to have been produced from the 1th to the 14th centuries; yet so imperfect is our knowledge of what is truly Persian, Syrian or Egyptian, that we are forced to accept many conventional names that have perhaps little but custom to recommend them. There is, for instance, an important class of pottery known, until recently, only from a few remark-ably handsome vases, and once called " Siculo-Arab " because these few examples had been mostly found in See also:Sicily. This ware is characterized by its fine quality and its distinguished ornament —See also:leaf-shaped panels with arabesques; interlacing patterns; striped and dotted bands ; friezes of animals or birds amidst See also:Albert Museum.) See also:flowers and foliage, inscriptions, &c.; all strongly and firmly See also:drawn in black or brown outlines and washed in with a very pure cobalt-blue or with turquoise. In spite of the resemblance of these pieces to the See also:oldest Persian wares, we know that bowls, dishes, vases and spoilt pieces of the same See also:kind have been dug up on the site of Rakka near Aleppo; similar ware has been found at Fostat, together with evidences of See also:local manufacture, and occasional pieces have been brought from Persia; so that probably this distinguished ware was made at Rakka in Syria between the 9th and the 13th centuries, and was afterwards made by Syrian potters both in Persia and Egypt. Other Persian Wares.—We have already spoken of the prevalent use of coloured glazes in all the countries of the nearer East—from Egypt to Persia—from remote times, either as the See also:sole colour decoration or in See also:conjunction with modeIIed or painted ornament. The fragments from Rai and Fostat include rich turquoise glazes (derived from the ancient Egyptian), deep and light-green glazes containing lead and copper, imitations of ancient Chinese celadon-green, a brownish-purple glaze, a See also:coffee-brown glaze and a deep cobalt-blue glaze.' All these may be ' A peculiarity of the Persian and allied blue glazes, of many shades, is that they appear to have been produced not by dissolving the colouring See also:matter in the glaze, but by coating the white ground of the ware with a thin See also:wash of some cobaltiferous substance—probably an See also:earth containing varying proportions of cobalt, manganese and iron—and then melting a thick alkaline glaze over it. found either on plain vases, or on vessels with modelled ornament; or covering delicate floral or arabesque patterns painted in white slip or incised in the paste.Sometimes, even at this early period, there are traces of applied See also: gold-leaf attached, but not fired, to the glaze. At a Very early period, too, we find those beautiful bowls, dishes and vases decorated with geometrical or arabesque patterns in a singularly still underglaze black, and covered with the blue turquoise or green copper glazes. This characteristic and beautiful ware is See also:common to Persia, Syria and Egypt in Saracen times, and it was soon prized in Europe, as is shown by the famous fragment found by the See also:late Mr See also:Drury Fortnum built into the See also:outer walls of S. See also:Cecilia in See also:Pisa, where it was apparently placed in the 12th century.' At a later date a shining black glaze made its appearance, and in the 13th century See also:pale and lapis-lazuli blues, while there is a comparatively See also:modern See also:sage-green glaze found only on pieces bearing patterns modelled in See also:low relief. Persian Porcelain.—This beautiful and somewhat mysterious ware—often called " Gombroon " ware—apparently made its appearance in the 13th century, though the bulk of the known examples are not earlier than the 17th or 18th century. The ware is quite translucent and is of soft and delicate texture. Unlike Chinese porcelain, it was made from a mixture of See also:pipe-clay and glass, and was glazed with a soft lead glaze; so that a fragment of it would melt to an opaque glass in an See also:ordinary porcelain See also:oven. It is principally met with in the See also:form of dishes, bowls (often mounted on feet) and saucers. The 'pieces are generally very thin and are either perfectly plain or bear flutings or simple wavy patterns incised in the paste. Most characteristic and beautiful is the decoration by means of delicate perforations either straight or See also:lozenge-shaped. In the finest pieces the perforations are filled with glaze, and then they form a decoration analogous to the well-known " See also:rice-See also:grain " decoration of the Chinese. Occasional pieces are found decorated with colour, either a delicate green, producing an effect like pale See also:bright celadon, or the well-known Persian blue ground; and this is sometimes decorated with lustre patterns.Nowhere can this rare and delicately beautiful ware be so well studied as in the See also:
He was apparently See also: familiar with the pottery of his own See also:country, and notes all the novel forms that he found in the bazaars of Old Cairo, which was both a great trading See also:emporium for the See also:traffic of East and See also:West, and a pottery centre of note. He mentions, specially, certain translucent bowls of earthenware decorated with colours resembling a stuff called " bougalemoun," " the tints changing according to the position which one gives to the vase." Such a description could only apply to " lustred " pottery, and it would seem as if this process must have been known in Egypt or Syria before it was practised in Persia (see Plate V., 13th-century Syro-Persian). In any See also:case the See also:secret was soon carried to Persia, for we have ample evidence that it was practised at Rhagae in the next century. The earliest dated example of Persian lustred ware is a See also:star-shaped See also:tile of the See also:year A.D. 1217 (A.u. 614), decorated with spotted See also:hares, heraldically confronted, in a ground of lustre relieved by dots and curls, and surrounded by an inscribed border. A vase in the Godman collection bears the date A.D. 1231 (A.H. 629), and some of the well-known " star and See also:cross " tiles from Veramin belong to the year A.D. 1262. The early Persian lustre is chiefly known to us through the tiles with which the walls of mosques and public buildings were decorated; the more ephemeral vases, bowls and dishes have survived in smaller See also:numbers and very rarely in perfect See also:condition. Common motives of decoration were animals and birds (sometimes showing Chinese influence), the See also:hare and the See also:deer being favourites; roughly drawn See also:sack-like figures of men and See also:women, mounted or on See also:foot (probably heroes of Persian See also:legend), conventional foliage and arabesques.The designs are usually reserved in a lustred ground, which is relieved by small scrolls, curls and dots etched in the lustre (as though the glazed piece had been covered all over with the lustre mixture and the ornament scratched out , of this when it was dry), and showing beneath the See also: ivory-white tin-enamel with which the early wares are generally coated. The lustre itself when viewed directly may look like some golden or deep See also:chocolate-brown colour, but as the piece is turned to catch a side-light this deep colour is seen to bear a thin iridescent film, which glows with golden, green, purple or See also:ruby-red metallic reflets. On the earliest examples the decoration is often entirely in lustre, but later, lustre is often used to eke out a pattern painted with masses of pale cobalt-blue or turquoise under the glaze. Similar tiles with rather more elaborate ornament bear 14th-century See also:dates, and another variety has parts of the decoration, more particularly the large letters of the inscriptions, raised in low relief and heightened with blue. Yet another class, belonging to the 14th century, has a fine dark-blue alkaline glaze, with designs in low relief, picked out with scrolls and arabesques in white enamel or bold floral sprays in leaf-gold. Lustre is frequently found applied to the rich cobalt-blue ground, and there are still existing a few magnificent vases which show the artistic possibilities of this See also:scheme of decoration. It should be noted that when the pieces are in the round, the pattern is usually painted in lustre and not reserved in a lustre ground as on the flat tiles. In the later examples the tin-enamel was replaced entirely by white slip, and the lustre decoration continued in use until the end of the reign of Shah Abbas I. (1587-1629). To the last period belong many charming bowls, narghilis, cups and dishes in a brown lustre, with ruby reflets, on a white or a deep blue ground; this ware is pure white in sub-stance and generally translucent, and the pieces are occasionally signed (see Persian porcelain above). See also:Damascus Ware.—This time-honoured name (for "Damas Ware " was often mentioned in medieval inventories, and appears to have included many varieties of See also:oriental pottery which were highly prized in Italy, See also:France and See also:England in the middle ages)' forms rather a See also:puzzle nowadays for the archaeologist, for many diverse wares have been included under this See also:title, some of which were not made at Damascus. Yet Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the See also:world, and has seen unnumbered dynasties come and go around its See also:desert-fringed See also:oasis.An important centre of See also: caravan traffic, a nexus of palpitating See also:life from east and west, See also:north and See also:south, we cannot wonder if it developed a See also:special pottery of its own, tinged with something of a See also:cosmopolitan spirit. Formerly the Damascus wares were treated as a variety of the Persian pottery we have just de-scribed, but the best examples of the class now known under this name exhibit a mingling of various influences such as we might expect, and have well-marked See also:affinities both with the Persian wares and those brilliant productions now commonly recognized as Syrian and Turkish, while even far-off echoes of Chinese decorative mannerisms are not wanting. The characteristic Damascus ware of the See also:collector is marked by its quality; the ground is of very clear white, the colours are pure and brilliant, and the vessels, whether dishes or vases, are soundly made. The decoration, which is purely floral or conventional, recalls the more formal Persian style, but the colours recall those of the Turkish pottery with one remarkable substitution. The piled-up red-clay pigment of the latter is absent, but where it would inevitably occur in the design of a Turkish piece its See also:place is taken by a purple made from manganese, which is often thin and rather washy in quality. Fine examples of this famous ware are to be seen in the See also:British Museum and in the Louvre; its characteristic style of pattern is well shown in the 16th-century Damascus piece reproduced in Plate V. Another splendid example is the See also:lamp from the Mosque of See also:Omar at See also:Jerusalem, also in the British Museum (fig. 41); and this has generally been classed with the Damascus wares, though its colouring and its technique belong rather to Lower Syria or to Egypt. This magnificent piece bears a dated inscription, " In the year 956 in the See also:month Jemazi-l-oola. Specimens of Turkish and other Eastern wares exist with elaborate See also:English silver mounts of the time of See also:
Among the Fostat fragments classified by Dr Fouquet are many bearing the signatures of Syrian work-men. In the 15th and 16th centuries, too, imitations of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain became common throughout the nearer East, and quantities of fragments have been found at Fostat, See also: Ephesus and elsewhere. Turkish Pottery.—This beautiful and striking ware, formerly called Persian, and till lately Rhodian because See also:Rhodes was a known centre of manufacture, seems to have been fabricated in all the countries overrun by the See also:Ottoman See also:Turks in the 13th century, so that the name " Turkish," in spite of some opposition, is now generally applied to it. (See fig. 4z; and the 16th-century Rhodian or Turkish pieces, Plate V.) It has a fine white body of the usual sandy texture, covered, as a rule, with a wash of pure white slip; it is painted in strong brilliant colours, chiefly blue, turquoise, green, and a See also:peculiar red pigment which is heaped up in palpable relief—the whole of the ornament being outlined with black or dark green. The ware was glazed with an alkaline glaze of great See also:depth, so that the colours soften and some-times run, producing one of the most brilliant and attractive of all the oriental wares. In certain districts the white ground was not used, but over it a slip of the red colour (Armenian See also:bole) ,varying in strength from bright red to pale See also:salmon, was laid over the piece, reserving the pattern only in the white slip, which consequently lies lower than the red ground. Other examples are known where the ground has been covered with See also:lavender, blue FIG. 42.-Rhodian See also:Jug. sage, See also:apple and turquoise greens, chocolate or coffee-brown, and the sumptuous effect of the whole was often increased by the application of gold-leaf over the fired glaze. The decorative motives are distinguished from those of the Persian wares by a breadth and boldness which are in keeping with the brilliant, and not always harmonious, colouring. They include, it is true, the Persian arabesque, the floral See also:scroll with feathery leaf, the See also:thistle-See also:bloom and the cypress See also:tree, but the naturalistic treatment which permits immediate recognition of the favourite Turkish flowers such as the See also:tulip, See also:hyacinth, See also:carnation, See also:fritillary, See also:corn-See also:flower and See also:lily (some of which were imported into Europe by the Turks), is as See also:original and distinctive as the arrangement of the different elements of the design is artistic and charming.Other styles of design include formal patterns and diapers, rarely human and animal figures, and occasionally armorial devices and See also: ships. Tiles of this ware were extensively used for lining the walls of public buildings, replacing the carpets and textile hangings which their designs so freely imitated. Of domestic articles, dishes are the most numerous, though vases, ewers, sprinklers, jugs, See also:tankard-shaped flower-holders, covered bowls and mosque lamps are also plentiful. The tiles are found in all parts of the Turkish empire, though they were probably made at certain centres, such as See also:Nicaea (which gave its name to the ware in the 16th century and no doubt supplied many of the mosques in See also:Constantinople), Kutaia; Demitoka, Lindus and other centres in Rhodes and Damascus. Individual wares cannot be Omar. distinguished, except in some measure those of Damascus and Kutaial A small jug in the Godman Collection has an Armenian inscription stating that it was made by " See also:Abraham of Kutaia " in the 16th century. A few fine bowls and vases, painted in a beautiful blue with Persian arabesques and rosette scrolls, recalling Chinese porcelains of the Ming See also:dynasty, but of very characteristic appearance, are also attributed to this place; and later, in the 18th and up to the end of the 19th century, an inferior ware was largely manufactured here. This late ware usually takes the form of small See also:objects—plates, cups, jugs, See also:egg-shaped ornaments, &c.—with a thin, well-potted, white body and slight patterns of radiating leaves, scale diapers, &c., in blue, black and yellow. Turkish pottery was at its best in the 16th and the early part of the 17th century, and though See also:good tile work of later date exists, the general pottery deteriorated before the 18th century. An inferior ware of poor colour is still produced in See also:Turkey, Persia and Syria, and some attempt has been made of late to revive the old lustre decoration, but the results are not likely to be mistaken for those of old times. Collections.—The Victoria and Albert Museum contains the finest collection of the medieval pottery of the nearer East—the British Museum collection, though much smaller, has some magnificent examples. The See also:Cluny Museum in See also:Paris has a never-to-he-forgotten collection of Turkish pottery, especially plates and dishes.The museums of the Louvre and of Sevres have also many beautiful examples. See also: Berlin, See also:Frankfort and other See also:German towns have collections, but much smaller in extent. Private collectors in England and France own many fine specimens; and mention may be made particularly of those owned by Mr Ducane Godman and Mr See also:George Salting. HISPANO-MORESQUE POTTERY With the doings of the Moslem potters of the countries round the eastern Mediterranean fresh in our minds, it is interesting to follow the westward trend of the Moslem conquests, and see how in their See also:wake there also sprung up in Spain a ware of high distinction and beauty. The Iberian See also:peninsula had been the See also:scene of pottery-making from prehistoric times --a red unglazed ware was made before the See also:dawn of See also:civilization as finely finished as that found in the Nile valley by See also:Flinders See also:Petrie (see EGYPT: Art and See also:Archaeology), and the Romans had one of their great provincial pottery centres at See also:Saguntum; but it was only when a great part of Spain See also:lay under Mussulman rule that artistic and distinctive pottery was produced. What is by no means clear is how it came to pass that when the traditional methods, learnt by the See also:Arabs in Egypt and Syria, were carried westward they should have undergone such a See also:radical See also:change. Oxide of tin, the opacifying and whitening material in glazes See also:par excellence, was certainly known and used in the East from at least the 6th century B.C.; the ancient wares are coated with a covering of white tin-enamel to hide the See also:buff or reddish-coloured clay, and it was similarly used elsewhere; but its use was sporadic and not general in those countries, where we find instead a consistent development of the pottery made with a white slip-coating and a clear alkaline glaze. Perhaps it was that at this period tin was almost as costly as gold, and it was only when potters with an oriental training brought their skill to Spain, where tin abounded, that the relative cheapness of the material led them to employ it, so far as is known, exclusively. (There is a wide distinction between the tin-enamelled and the slip-faced wares, glazed with an alkaline glaze. In the latter, the more oriental type, the slip-coating is of fine white clay and sand, and this is finished with a transparent alkaline glaze containing little or no lead : in the former there is no need of a coating of slip, forthe addition of oxide of tin to a glaze rich in lead gives a dense coating of white enamel, opaque enough to disguise the color of the clay beneath.) Such colours as were used for painted patterns were painted over this enamel coating before it was fired, so that they became perfectly incorporated with it, and then this ground furnished a splendid See also:medium for the development of those thin iridescent metallic films that we See also:call " lustres." The knowledge of this lustre process had been brought from the East also, where it was used on another ground, and with the growing use of lustre pigments containing copper as well as silver—until the red, strongly metallic copper lustre almost ousted the quieter silver lustres—we get the simple techn,ique of one of the most distinctive kinds of pottery known. Briefly, the wares were " thrown " upon the wheel or " pressed " on modelled forms—handles, ribs and dots of clay, or strongly incised patterns were often added by See also:hand—and they were then fired a first time. A coating of the tin-enamel (rich in lead as well as tin) was applied, and on this coating designs were painted in cobalt and manganese; sometimes these colours were only used as masses to break up the background.Then the second firing took place and the piece came from the firing all shining and white, except where the blue or brownish purple had been painted (see fig. 43). The lustre pigments, a mixture of sulphide of copper or sulphide of silver, or both with red ochre or other earth, was then painted over the glazed surface with See also: vinegar as a medium. The repainted piece was fired a third time to a dull red heat, and smoked with the See also:smoke from the wood used in firing, and when See also:cold the loosely adherent ochre and metallic ash left were washed off, leaving the iridescent films in all their beauty. The technical practices of the See also:Spanish potters and the See also:composition of the lustre pigments are given in Cocks's See also:account of the processes followed at Muel (See also:Aragon) in 1585. The Manises See also:receipt of 1785 gives: copper 3 oz., red ochre 12 ozr, silver 1 See also:peseta piece, See also:sulphur 3 oz., vinegar 1 qt. and the ashes scraped off the pots after lustring 36 oz.' Interesting documents have recently been published concerning the See also:works executed by the " Saracen," See also:
Here under the art-loving Nasride dynasty, Mussulman arts and learning flourished to an unprecedented degree. In 1337 Ahmed See also: ben-Yahya al-Omarf enumerates, among the craft productions of Malaga, its golden pottery, the like of which he declares is not to be met with elsewhere. The Moroccan traveller Ibn Batuta mentions (135o) the Malagan golden pottery, as does Ibn al-Hatib (1313–1374) of Granada, in his description of Malaga. The See also:principal See also:monument of the period is the royal See also:palace of Granada, begun in 1273, and finished during the 14th century, from which period most of its ornamentation dates. Two vases were discovered there, of which the existing one, known as the " See also:Alhambra vase," is admittedly the most imposing product of Hispano-Moresque ceramic art extant. Its See also:amphora-shaped body (4 ft. 5 in. high) is encircled by a See also:band of Arabic inscription, above which are depicted gazelles reserved in cream and golden lustre upon a blue See also:
Valencia.—The emirate of Valencia was reconquered by Aragon in 1238. The See also: history of its lustred ware is known from 1383, when Eximenes (whose evidence has been erroneously held to date from 1499) mentions the golden ware (See also:Obra dorada) of Manises. Valencian pottery of this kind was an offshoot of the Malagan industry, as in documents lately published (ranging from 1405 to 1517) it is repeatedly designated Malaga ware (Obra de Malaga). Its decorative qualities became famous throughout the whole of Europe and North See also:Africa. The ware was chiefly manufactured at Manises by the Moorish retainers of the Buyl or See also:Boil See also:family, lords of Manises. who levied dues upon the output of the kilns, and occasionally arranged for its See also:sale. It is distinguished as regards its ornamentation from the pottery of Malaga by the See also:adoption of a more natural rendering of plant form motives and by the use of armory. The ware consists of See also:drug pots, deep dishes, large and small plates, aquamaniles, vases, &c. Some dozen varieties of ornament were employed during the 15th and early 16th centuries, including See also:mock arable inscriptions, various flower or foliage patterns taken from the See also:vine, bryony, &c., and gadroons. The centres of dishes frequently bear the arms of a See also:
It is known to have flourished at Calatayud in 1507, and at Muel, also in Aragon, in 1589. In the Valencia district much pottery for ordinary use, ornamented with blue on white, was also produced. See also: Majorca.—See also:Scaliger, in 1557, states that Chinese porcelain was imitated in the Balearic Isles, and that the Italians called these imitations " See also:majolica," changing the See also:letter in the name of the islands (then called Majorica) where they originated. The truth would appear to be that Valencian wares, being exported in Balearic vessels that called at Majorca on the voyage to Italy, acquired a reputed Mallorcan origin. There is extant a potter's See also:petition praying for permission to establish himself in Majorca (156o), in which he states that " Manises ware," &c., had to be imported, as it was not made there. Collections.—In England, the Victoria and Albert and the British Museums have fine collections of this ware. At Paris the Cluny Museum collection, and the Louvre; the museum at Sevres contains many fine typical pieces. Another good collection is that of the archaeological museum at See also:Madrid. The Berlin and the See also:Hamburg museums, the See also:Metropolitan Art Museum at New See also:York and the See also:Boston Museum of Fine Arts also contain good specimens. The private collections of England, France and Italy are rich in these wares, among the finest being those of Mr F. D. Godman (See also:Horsham), and of See also:Don G.J. de Osma (Madrid). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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