Name of Object:

Vessel

Location:

Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

Burrell Collection, Glasgow Museums

About Burrell Collection, Glasgow Museums, Glasgow

Date of Object:

Hegira 7th century / AD 13th century

Museum Inventory Number:

BC 33/37

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Stone-paste (fritware) painted and glazed.

Dimensions:

Height 12 cm, diameter 10.4 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ayyubid

Provenance:

Raqqa, Syria.

Description:

A stone-paste (fritware) vessel with an arabesque decoration on the top half of its baluster form. Painted in black and blue under a transparent glaze; the glaze has deteriorated rather badly. The shape is similar to Iranian pottery vessels and is indicative of the close artistic relationship between Syria and Iran during this period, especially between Raqqa and Kashan as, with the exception of the mina'i wares produced in Kashan, Raqqa produced more or less the same type of ceramics. Raqqa was one of two major pottery-production centres in Ayyubid Syria, the other being Rusafah. In Raqqa there were a number of pottery workshops that produced a range of ceramics including lustre-painted, relief-moulded, and underglaze-painted vessels. Pottery production ceased when the Mongols razed the city to the ground in AH 657 / AD 1259.

Raqqa potters had a close artistic relationship with those of Iran during the late Abbasid period, and especially during the Ayyubid period. The shape and the style of the blue and black arabesque decoration of this vessel are similar to vessels made in the city of Kashan in Iran.

How date and origin were established:

Stylistic analysis, together with analysis of the material composition of the vessel's body which is distinctively that of Raqqa. Furthermore, the nature and extent of the deterioration of the glaze is also typical of Raqqa ceramics.

How Object was obtained:

Part of the collection given to the City of Glasgow by Sir William and Lady Burrell in 1944.

How provenance was established:

The vessel is typical of Raqqa ceramics in both its material composition and in the nature of the deterioration of the glaze.

Selected bibliography:

Fehervari, G., Ceramics of the Islamic World in the Tareq Rajab Museum, London, 2000.

Grube, E. J., Cobalt and Lustre: The First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Vol. 9, London, 1994.

Citation of this web page:

Noorah Al-Gailani "Vessel" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus04;8;en

Prepared by: Noorah Al-GailaniNoorah Al-Gailani

Noorah Al-Gailani is Curator for Islamic Civilisations at Glasgow Museums, Scotland. With a BA in Interior Design from the College of Fine Arts, Baghdad University and three years' experience in design and folk art preservation, she moved to the UK in 1992. On completing her MA in Museum Studies at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London in 1994, she worked as Project Officer at the Grange Museum of Community History documenting the presence of Muslim communities in the London Borough of Brent. In 1995 she was Assistant Curator, Ancient Monuments Laboratory, English Heritage, and in 1996 became Curator for John Wesley's House and the Museum of Methodism in London. She co-authored The Islamic Year: Surahs, Stories and Celebrations (Stroud: Hawthorn Press, 2002) for non-Muslim children. Since 2003 she has been based at The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, working across the city's museums to interpret Islamic art and culture, ancient and modern, through research, exhibitions and educational activities.
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: UK4 14