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http://www.museuceramica.bcn.es/english/colecc/ceramica_valenciana.htm
Lustre tableware and objects
Late 14th century to 18th century
The Manises and Paterna potteries, which after the Reconquest remained in the hands of the Morisco potters – Mudejars who had converted to Christianity – made luxury tableware for popes, monarchs and the nobility of all of Europe.
The techniques of lustreware came from the Near East, where they were used from the 9th century to decorate the tableware of the Caliphs. They were introduced into Al Andalus during the 12th century, and from the late 14th century they came into use in Valencia.
The more primitive pieces (late 14th-early 15th century), which are often decorated in blue and gold as in Málaga, remain close to the Islamic spirit.
The more refined pieces (15th century) combine iconographic elements of Islamic origin with Christian-Gothic ones: figures and fantastic animals, a wide range of plant motifs, and a great variety of coats-of-arms of the nobility.
From the 16th century lustreware began to lose prestige in the European market. Potters used models from goldsmiths’ work for the design of their shapes: gadroons, cords and central bosses.
In the 17th and 18th centuries lustreware was made only for the local market. The colour blue was hardly used, while the rare figurative subjects were highly stylised, designs being applied with a thicker brush. This was the period of popularisation and decadence.
TECHNIQUE Tin-glazed pottery was decorated with a mixture of silver, copper oxide, cinnabar and iron oxide diluted in vinegar, before being fired for a third time in a reducing atmosphere. To obtain the necessary chemical reaction, it was essential to cover the chimneys to keep the smoke inside the oven and not to allow the temperature to rise above six hundred degrees. The pieces came out blackened, and the lustre did not appear until they had been burnished.
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