A rare and important Fatimid green-glazed pottery vase with handles, Egypt, 11th-12th century

the body of ovoid form resting on a short everted foot, the shoulder decorated with applied trails and four lug handles, the narrow cylindrical neck incised with a hatched arcade, with exterior partially dipped with a green lead-glaze, the interior glazed in turquoise

This impressive vase is amongst the largest intact survivors of its tradition. Its origins are in antiquity but the evolution of a fine body has enabled its maker to embellish this vase with a rich and ennobling green glaze.

The decoration is composed of both impressed and added elements under the glaze. The form is derived from the classical amphora. The decoration of four loops applied to the shoulder may also have a classical origin as they appear to be abbreviated forms of handle found on jars of the Roman period. They occur on a number of pottery wares of this form up to this date in regions with a strong Graeco-Roman inheritance. A lustre-decorated jar in the al-Sabah Collection has similar applied motifs (Watson 2004, p.196, cat.E.19). Another green-glazed vase of the later Fatimid period found at Fustat, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, has raised handles of a similar nature that may still be no more than decorative elements (inv.no.1777-1897).

This group includes examples with various decorative treatments: lot 276, for instance, has incised angular designs. The largest and most impressive of this group, though slightly later, is in the al-Sabah Collection (Watson 2004, Cat.Jb.1. pp.284-5). It is of the early Ayyubid period and has the frit body that superseded the fine earthenware of the present example.

A thermo-luminescence analysis report accompanies this lot, giving a date of last firing as 920 years ago (plus or minus 80 years).