Bowl with Seated Figure, from the area of Rayy, 1200-1299, frit body, painted in luster on an opaque white glaze, Museum Purchase, 1918.18.

The Bowl with a Seated Figure (1918.18) will be on display as of summer 2024 in the Asian Gallery (106).

Lusterware ceramics like this bowl were coveted for their shimmering metallic quality and were said to have been dipped in sunlight. Lusterware was valued across cultures, as both Islamic courts and European crusaders used these ceramics as deluxe dinnerware. The repetitive scroll patterning and seated figure in a roundel create a visual rhythm on this bowl’s surface. It is the luster glaze, however, that creates the bowl’s unusual iridescent surface and makes it a luxury item. Lusterware requires a complex and expensive glazing process in which a ceramic is glazed in tin oxide to create a white base and then re-fired after being painted with metallic luster paint, resulting in a pearlescent sheen on the ceramic’s surface.