Lustreware

Tra i capolavori della collezione di maioliche rina-scimentali del Victoria and Albert Museum, il bas-sorilievo con San Sebastiano rappresenta un docu-mento fondamentale, giustamente famoso per essere il più precoce lustro datato: sulla base reca la data «ADI.14. DeLUGLIO. 1501» 1.  Ch

Luster (or lustre) decoration was used at least as early as the ninth century by Persian and Syrian potters on fritware, and, by the fifteenth century, was incorporated into Iberian and Italian ceramic technology. The technique was revived in the eighteenth century by German and French porcelain manufactories and adopted by English potters in the early nineteenth century. By 1808 American newspapers along the Eastern seaboard offered consumers lusterware tea and coffee set—“pots separate”—and numerous other forms. This article briefly traces the history of silver lusterware, and examines some of the evidence above and below ground for this often-overlooked material in early nineteenth-century America.

The Hossein Afshar Collection of Persian Art was exhibited in the Museum of Fine Arts in  Houston in 2019. The collection contains several outstanding pieces of ceramic, including lustre tiles and tableware from Kashan, a superb pair of matching bowls from Nishapur and  exquisite blue-and-white pieces from  Tabriz and Kirman.

Se estudian cuatro tarros nazaríes, tres en loza azul y dorada y uno vidriado verde. La pieza príncipe, en el British Museum, decorada con el árbol de la vida en sentido ascendente, se fecha c.1353-1363; por su calidad sería objeto de la cámara del soberano. Otros dos tarros del I.V.D.J., con decorado con bandas horizontales se datan c.1390-1420; el del escudo dinástico pertenecería a la casa real;  el que muestra errores epigráficos, sería  para la clase acomodada. El cuarto vidriado verde se encontró en la Alhambra y es de tipo popular.


ENGLISH:
Four Nasrid jars are studied, three in blue and glod lustre and one glazed green. The fine item in the British Museum, dated c. 1353-1363, with the tree of life in upright and reverse positions,  probably belonged to the sovereign´s own tableware. Two in the I.V.D.J., with decorative horizontal bands are c. 1390-1420; one with the Nasrid coat-of-arms would belong to the royal household, the other with epigraphic errors to a  prosperous citizen. The fourth, glazed green, a popular item for liquids, was foun in the Alhambra with its neck broken.

In 2014 the Ashmolean Museum conserved and examined one of the largest and most handsome ceramic vessels in its renowned Islamic art collection. An accomplished example of early thirteenth-century Persian lusterware from the bequest of Sir Alan Barlow, the salver had an unusually deformed profile and uneven wear that pointed at a number of past interventions. Some of these had already been uncovered in 2008 when the object was prepared for reinstallation in the revamped Ashmolean. However, it was only when analyzed by a team of inhouse specialists and scientists from Cranfield University and the Research Laboratory for Archaeology at the University of Oxford, that the extraordinary nature of its “restoration” could be assessed. This article presents the results of this collaborative effort and contributes important evidence to the thorny issue of the faking and forging of Islamic ceramics in the early twentieth century, when collecting Islamic decorative arts was at its peak.

Cerámica  nazarí en el siglo XV.  A pesar de iniciar un periodo de inicio de decadencia decorativa se mantiene una calidad decorativa de gran  importancia y en la que  su evolución dará lugar a la cerámica de fajalauza de los primeros momentos.

The paper presents a comprehensive physico-chemical investigation on a series of Hispano-Moresque objects produced in the eastern Spain workshops between the XIV and XVIII centuries and fragments from XII century, in order to compare them with the Italian Renaissance majolica production. The techniques used are mainly non-destructive (ion beam analyses and X-ray diffraction), sometimes complemented by SEM observation and microanalysis, and electrothermal atomic emission spectrometry. Such methods allow a full description of the terra cotta, of the glaze and of the different surface layers which constitute the lustre decoration indicating individual elemental composition and thickness of each layer containing or not metallic nanoparticles. Principal results show the following: i) a constant source of supply for the eastern Spain terra cotta; ii) a significant change in the composition of the Spanish glazes around the XVII century, with the disappearance of the opacifying tin oxide addition; iii) significant evolutions in the structure and composition of the lustre layers, in particular related to the presence or not of a metal-free surface glaze film and its thickness; iv) interesting analogies and differences with the Italian majolica; v) confirmation of the change in the quality of blue pigment during XVI century, already evidenced by the authors in previous publications. A discussion about the transmission of the lustre technique between eastern Spain and Italy at the Renaissance period is proposed.

This paper presents the results of the investigation of a particular type of luster experimentally produced by evaporating, depositing and embedding copper and silver nano-particles in a lead-free glaze. Various proportions of silver nitrate and copper acetate were heated, flashed and reduced on a zircon-opacified white glaze to achieve reduced flashed copper and silver metal-like luster (RFCSL). Reducing flashed copper and silver, two golden and red coppery metallic layers were developed which were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), micro-Raman spectroscopy (μ-Raman), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). The results showed that spherical silver nano-particles (10–100 nm in diameter) were developed near the glaze surface creating a golden metallic shine. Copper nano-particles, how...