Lustreware is difficult to adequately describe, and even excellent photographs do not approach the visual thrill of the light playing across its surface. These are two photographs of the same small potsherd, an example of a 9th century polychrome lusterware sherd that is tilted at slightly different angles. As you can see in the images, the light picks out the gold lustres along the green lines, so that the shimmering lights are reflected depending on which direction the light comes from. But the brown lustre splotches in the sherd does not show this effect.
The scholars involved in this research insist that it is best to see the lusterwares in person. The following is a list of museums which have collections of lusterwares which may be visited.
- Ashmolean Museum: Eastern Art, Oxford UK
- Brooklyn Museum: Arts of the Islamic World, Brooklyn, New York
- The Louvre: Islamic Art Paris, France, currently closed but has an online exhibit
- Okayama Orient Museum, Okayama, Japan
Sources
This project is based on the ongoing research of Trinitat Pradell and colleagues. The main sources utilized for the project are listed on the definition page for lusterware. A timeline for the Islamic civilization is also available for consultation.
An excellent source for further information about Islamic ceramics in general with much data on lustres is the Ashmolean Museum's Web-Based Teaching Course on Islamic Ceramics.
