Bottle

This pear-shaped bottle with a silver top is in many ways typical of the pieces created during the late seventeenth-century revival of the lusterware technique. These were often small objects decorated with floral and vegetal motifs on a deep blue ground. Unlike the Chinese wares also popular at this time, the shape and design of these lusterwares were based on Near Eastern prototypes, and not those from the Far East. Most common were bottles, ewers, jars, huqqa bases, bowls, and goblets. To create the luster effect, the white frit body of the ceramic was coated with a slip, possibly of pure ground quartz, here stained deep blue, other times a turquoise or lemon yellow. The vessel was then covered with a transparent glaze and painted with a coppery colored luster pigment that contrasted nicely with the matte glaze.