Name of Object:

Jug with spout

Location:

Damascus, Syria

Holding Museum:

National Museum of Damascus

About National Museum of Damascus, Damascus

Date of Object:

Hegira 6th–first half of the 7th century / AD 12th–first half of the 13th century

Museum Inventory Number:

ع / 1135

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Earthenware decorated with metallic lustre glaze.

Dimensions:

Height 25.5 cm, diameter (of mouth) 7.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ayyubid

Provenance:

Raqqa, Syria.

Description:

Earthenware ceramics with a dark-brown metallic lustre glaze were produced in the city of Raqqa during the AH 6th–first half of the 7th / AD 12th–first half of the 13th centuries. What distinguishes these ceramics from those made in other places and periods are the types of colours used, particularly distinctive is the dark-brown.
This jug represents a ceramic of this type. It has a columnar base, a globe-shaped body and a long cylindrical neck with an outward flaying lip. It is outfitted with a long tubular spout and a handle that juts out parallel to the lip and which curves perpendicularly downward to attach at the periphery of the body.
The jug is decorated with dark-brown lustre glaze from the top of the lip, spout, handle, and neck all the way down to the bulk of the globular body, applied in a series of horizontal bands portraying calligraphic, pseudo-calligraphic, stylised vegetal and geometric patterns. Contrasts in colour intensity and band width are also part of the decorative scheme. The transparent, dark-brown metallic lustre is covered with a layer of very light-green glaze.

View Short Description

The region of Raqqa was a prolific producer of fine-quality underglazed lustre ceramics just before the Mongol invasion. The brown colour of this lustre is typical of Raqqa-ware.

How date and origin were established:

Lustre ware in this shade of dark-brown is known to have been produced in the 6th–first half of the 7th / 12th–first half of the 13th centuries in Raqqa. Production of ceramics ended after the Mongol invasion and destruction of the city in 656–7 / 1258–9.

How Object was obtained:

The piece was exchanged between the Damascus and Aleppo museums in 1931.

How provenance was established:

Wares with decorations of this type are known to have been produced in Raqqa, as evidenced by the studies of many Islamic scholars, including Oliver Watson.

Selected bibliography:

Abu al-Faraj al-Ush, M., A Concise Guide to the National Museum of Damascus, Damascus, 1969, pp.231–2.
Caiger-Smith, A., Lustre Pottery: Technique, Tradition and Innovation in Islam and the Western World, London, 1985.
Porter, V., Medieval Syrian Pottery, Oxford, 1981.
Porter, V., and Watson, O., “'Tel Minis' Wares”, in Syria and Iran: Three Studies in Medieval Ceramics, Oxford, 1987, pp.173–248.
Watson, O., Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004, pp.292–3.

Citation of this web page:

Mona al-Moadin "Jug with spout" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;sy;Mus01;26;en

Prepared by: Mona Al-Moadin
Translation by: Hilary Kalmbach (from the Arabic)
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: SY 36

RELATED CONTENT

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 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Ayyubids


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Calligraphy Ceramics

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