Today I had my first appointment with Rachel Barclay, who talked me through the records of the Persian bowl, how it came to be in the Durham Oriental Museum and a brief overview in Islamic history.
The bowl was donated to the Oriental Museum by the National Arts Trust Fund, having come to them from Henry Van Den Bergh, an industrialist born in Oss in the Netherlands, who moved to London in 1870 to work in the family margarine business. The bowl was donated at the same time as 8 others, which will hopefully form the basis of some comparison for my podcast. Pottery was the main focus of Henry's collection, however he did also generously collect and donate art from a number of different mediums and cultures - for example the extensive collection of Dutch tiles which are held now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Unfortunately for me, the records of Henry Van Den Bergh's collections seem to have been largely lost, so that it is impossible to tell where the items were bought and for how much. It was however, interesting to see the correspondence between the Art Fund and Durham Oriental Museum, which I am hoping to expand on in further blog posts, even if the writing was sometimes illegible and the process seemed far more brief than it would be nowadays!
Rachel was able to tell me that the object was dated to the 13th century, and is fritware with Minai-Lajuardina decoration. The style may be regarded as transitional from Minai ware to the later Lajuardini technique. After having conducted my own research on return from the meeting, I have found that the technique itself dates back from the 9th century AD and appears to have been developed in its earliest forms in Iraq. From there, it spread to Egypt and other parts of the Islamic world. The fritware itself consists mostly of silica with a small amount of clay and fruit (glass or glaze that is poured into water upon being removed from the kiln while it is still hot. When it hits the water, it shatters into tiny pieces. These pieces are then ground up for use in the clay body).
It was probably developed in imitation of the Chinese porcelain that was being imported into the area at the time, and many similarities can be seen in the shape and decoration of the pottery. Islamic potters didn't have the knowledge or technology to make porcelain. The technique used is very different to porcelain but does provide a bright, white background for decorating like porcelain does. It is also sometimes known by the other names of stone paste and faience.
According to Rachel, there are also some comparable pieces in the V&A as well as much literature around the history and themes that I am looking to study. Furthermore, the Metropolitan Museum has lots of information that may provide some direction to my reading.
At this stage, I will begin my research into the object itself, however, I also want to get a better contextual understanding of the object's place in the wider history of Iranian art and pottery. My brief meeting with Rachel has uncovered as many questions as it has answered, and I feel excited at the prospect of uncovering some more about this period of history and a genre of art which though aesthetically has pleased me for a long time, I actually know relatively little about.
