Lustreware
Loza de reflejo metálico
- Date
- c. 830 · confidence medium
- Place
- Basra, Iraq
- Credited to
- Abbasid potters (Basra and Samarra)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Decoration with silver and copper nanoparticles deposited in a third, reducing firing, giving a golden or iridescent sheen over the glaze. Carried to Egypt, Persia and al-Andalus, it produced the lustreware of Malaga and Manises.
Lustre on glass appears earlier in Egypt and Syria (8th century, Fustat); its transfer to ceramics is Abbasid. Modern analysis identifies it as a layer of metallic nanoparticles.
What it led to
- golden lustreware of Malaga and Manises
- Kashan lustreware
- deliberate use of metallic nanoparticles