A monumental earthenware jar of pear-shaped form. The upper-body decorated with applied strips of clay forming a wave-like pattern and series of small, raised roundels together with a band of incised decoration around the rim. The whole covered with a turquoise and white glaze.

This example is impressive in size and is glazed both in its interior and exterior, thus suggesting it was produced to contain liquids. The three handles were too small for the jar to be lifted by hand but were probably used to attach a lid on top. The exterior has been decorated with applied strips or dots of clay and the external surface glazed with a turquoise obtained from alkaline.

Iraq
8th – 9th Century
Height: 60 cm

As noted by Oliver Watson, the importance of these types of wares ‘lies not only in the history of style and technology, but also in its scale of production and wide distribution. These have big implications for economic history and in understanding trading connection.’1

When the Abbasid dynasty founded the new capital in Baghdad, the region blossomed thanks to a new wave of economic stimulus: trade, manufacturing and agriculture boomed, as well as local wealth. These types of jars have been widely found in the major sites of sea-trade routes, from Raqqa, Aqaba, East Africa and even South-East Asia and China, pointing towards a very functional use of storing food for trade.2

This type of alkaline-glazed pottery, intended for the storage of food stuffs or drinking water, had been produced in kilns along the Upper Euphrates since at least the Parthian and Sassanian periods continuing through to the Umayyad and early Abbasid periods, with subtle changes in shape and design. The distinctive silvery iridescence offset by the turquoise glaze only adds to their decorative appeal. ‘Copper oxide is one of the cheapest raw materials used to color glazes and also one of the most widespread. When copper oxide is used in a lead glaze, it turns a lush, grass-green color, while it becomes more turquoise in an alkaline glaze.’3

Their story is also fascinating, four examples have been found as far afield as Fujian province in China. A tomb at Lotus Peak on the outskirts of Fuzhou, dedicated to Liu Hua (d. A.D. 930), wife of King Wang Yangjun of the Min Kingdom (A.D. 909-945), yielded three similar turquoise-glazed jars––a testament to the trading activities of Persian and Arab merchants along the southern coast of China at the time.

1. Watson 2020, p.28.

A similar example is in the David Collection1; three fragments from similar jars have been published in Whitcomb 19922.