Bowl with Metallic Lustre Decoration

9th century
Attributable to Ali Abu Shaddad

This bowl is characteristic of the very first ceramic productions with a metallic lustre decoration, a technique developed in Mesopotamia at the beginning of the 9th century in the Abbasid workshops of present-day Iraq. Initially applied to glass, the decoration is made from copper and silver oxides adapted to terracotta by potters. Intended for the elite, and extremely expensive, lustreware was produced in the big cities of Mesopotamia. This technique, widely developed in the Muslim world, later gave rise to high-quality productions in Italy and Spain.