Almohad Green Glazed
Alhambra Vase
AN ALMOHAD GREEN GLAZED
"ALHAMBRA" VASE
SEVILLE, ANDALUCIA, 11TH/12TH CENTURY
AN ALMOHAD GREEN GLAZED ALHAMBRA VASE
Price Realized * £30,550 * ($44,206) * Price includes
buyer's premium
Estimate * £30,000 - £50,000 ($43,410 - $72,350)
Sale Information
Sale 6497
islamic art and manuscripts
16 October 2001
London, King Street
Lot Description
AN ALMOHAD GREEN GLAZED "ALHAMBRA" VASE
Seville, Andalucia, 11th/12th century
Of classic form, very heavily potted rising through a
tall rounded conical form to the pronounced rounded
shoulder, the red pottery body with another layer of
finer white slip which is moulded under the plain green
glaze into a series of bands of geometric and floral
motifs, the base of each handle also showing evidence of
similar decoration, mouth and handles restored, areas of
surface encrustation and loss
33in. (83cm.) high
The very well known small group of outstanding large
lustre painted "Alhambra" vases derived their
shape from large storage jars decorated in different
techniques of which the present example is one. Large
pottery storage jars and well heds were produced in a
number of centre in Southern Spain; each appears to have
had slightly different traditions of decoration. The
feature seen in the present vase which is typical of
Seville of the 11th century is the narrow bands, each of
a single repeated stamped motif under a plain green
glaze.
A well-head in the National Archaeological Museum,
Madrid, dating from 1038 AD has a band of this decoration
in the form of a repeated inscription below the rim (Les
Andalousies de Damas à Cordoue, exhibition catalogue,
Paris, 2001, no.160, p.148). The note to that entry
suggests that it is the slightly later examples, under
Almohad rule, which covered the decoration with a plain
green glaze as found here. Marthe Bernus-Taylor cites
another well-head covered with green glaze preserved in
the Museum at Tétouan which is dated to 1190 AD. A vase
very similar to the present example but in a better state
of preservation is in the National Ceramic Museum,
Sèvres, attributed to Seville of the 10th or 11th
century by Summer Kenesson ("Nasrid Lustre
Pottery", Muqarnas, IX, p.97, fig.5). That
demonstrates that the mouth was probably not faceted and
was lower and more flaring while the handles were
probably less pronounced than the reconstruction which is
now in place.
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