Lusterware

Lusterware or Lustreware (respectively the US and all other English spellings) is a type of pottery or porcelain with a metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence, produced by metallic oxides in an overglaze finish, which is given a second firing at a lower temperature in a "muffle kiln", reduction kiln, which excludes oxygen.

The first use of lustre decoration was as painting on glass. While some scholars see this as a purely Islamic invention originating in Fustat, others place the origins of lustre decoration in Roman and Coptic Egypt during the centuries preceding the rise of Islam. Staining glass vessels with copper and silver pigments was known from around the 3rd century AD, although true lustre technology probably began sometime between the 4th and 8th centuries AD.

Lustre glazes were applied to pottery in Mesopotamia in the 9th century; the technique later became popular in Persia and Syria. In the Great Mosque of Kairouan, Tunisia, the upper part of the mihrab is adorned with polychrome and monochrome lusterware tiles; dating from 862-863, these tiles were most probably imported from Mesopotamia. Islam forbade the use of precious metal dishes and vessels for eating, which had been normal for pre-Islamic elites, and there was therefore a market for elaborate and expensive glass and ceramic equivalents. The reminiscence of shining metal, especially gold, made lustreware especially attractive.

Lusterware was produced in quantity in Egypt during the Fatimid caliphate in the 10th-12th centuries. While the production of lusterware continued in the Middle East, it spread to Europe through Al-Andalus. Málaga was the first centre of Hispano-Moresque ware, before it developed in the region of Valencia, and then to Italy, where it was used to enhance maiolica. In the 16th century lustred maiolica was a specialty of Gubbio, noted for a rich ruby red, and at Deruta.

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