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Name of Object:
Dish
Holding Museum:
The British Museum
Museum Inventory Number:
London, England, United Kingdom 1889.7-6.75
Dimensions:
Width 34.9 cm
Material(s) / Technique(s):
Relief-moulded and lead-glazed ceramic.
Date of the object:
Hegira 3rd century / AD 9th century
Period / Dynasty:
Abbasid
Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):
Abu Nasr of Basra.
Provenance:
Egypt.
Description:
A small, square relief-moulded ceramic dish with nine sections: five circular and four egg-shaped in the corners. The flat surface around these indentations is covered with relief decoration. This was probably used as a condiment tray with a different delicacy held in each compartment. Unusually for this type of ceramic the craftsman has signed his work; Abu Nasr states that he is from Basra but that this dish was made in Egypt. It is possible that Abu Nasr moved from Basra after a period of political unrest there, to settle in Egypt under the relative stability of the Tulunid dynasty. He offers, therefore, an interesting example of the tendency of craftsmen to leave areas of political upheaval and migrate to more politically peaceful locations where patronage would be more abundant.
How object was obtained:
Bequeathed by Augustus Wollaston Franks in 1889.
How date and origin were established:
Other lead-glazed ceramics with relief decoration have been found at sites in Abbasid Egypt and Iraq, dating to the 3rd / 9th century.
How provenance was established:
The craftsman has inscribed the dish with the words: 'the work of Abu Nasr of Basra in Egypt'. Therefore although he originated in Basra, he made this dish in Egypt.
Selected bibliography:
Grube. E., et. al., Cobalt and Lustre: The First Centuries of Islamic Pottery, London, 1994, pp.10–34.
Citation:
Emily Shovelton "Dish" in Discover Islamic Art. Place: Museum With No Frontiers, 2013. http://www.discoverislamicart.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus01;47;en
MWNF Working Number: UK1 66
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