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Object Label

Wasters, or ceramic products damaged during the firing process and therefore discarded as waste near the original kilns. Excavations by the Ottoman Imperial Museum in 1906 and 1908, by chance conducted near the thirteenth-century kilns, most likely exposed the buried wasters.

Caption

Small Vase, 13th century. Ceramic, fritware, 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 4 1/4 in. (12 x 12 x 10.8 cm) Diameter at mouth: 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm) Thickness of rim: 3/16 in. (0.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt, 36.944. Creative Commons-BY

Title

Small Vase

Date

13th century

Period

Ayyubid

Geography

Place made: Raqqa, Syria

Medium

Ceramic, fritware

Classification

Ceramic

Dimensions

4 3/4 x 4 3/4 x 4 1/4 in. (12 x 12 x 10.8 cm) Diameter at mouth: 2 1/16 in. (5.2 cm) Thickness of rim: 3/16 in. (0.4 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt

Accession Number

36.944

Rights

Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

Frequent Art Questions

  • Can you tell me about the vibrant blue glaze on the small vase? Why is it so much brighter than the other pots? Do you know about the firing process?

    Sure. The body of the vessel was decorated with black pigment and then covered with a transparent turquoise glaze likely colored with copper oxides.
    Black and turquoise ware is typical of Raqqa ceramics from this period as potters took advantage of the fritware body to provide a white background and the stability of the black pigment to execute a crisp design. Other vessels in this display are rejects or mistakes that, therefore, do not show the same level of finish.

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