About the Story
When we think of cities in the Middle East, these famous names like Baghdad, Cairo, Tehran come to mind. Kashan is probably a place many people have never heard of. It is a small city in Iran, but what makes it special is its luster ceramics. Among the various ceramic traditions in the world, luster ceramics are unique. Its appearance is strikingly similar to precious metals, especially gold. It has been described as “reflecting like red gold and shining like the light of the sun”. The city of Kashan was not the first but the most prolific producer of luster ceramics. Over the past decade, Museum für Islamische Kunst has been dedicated to unlocking the secrets of luster ceramics through exhibitions, research and workshops. This essay takes us back to Kashan and its ceramic legacy, and examines its interwoven relationship with the museum.
Where is Kashan?
Kashan is a small city in the north-central Iranian province of Isfahan. The city was first mentioned in the famous ninth-century Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh's Book of Roads and Kingdoms (Kitāb al-Masālik wa-l-Mamālik, 870 AD). Located on the edge of Iran's so-called Great Salt Desert, Dasht-e Kavir, Kashan is also the first of the major oases along the northern and southern trade routes within Iran. And since the 12th and 13th centuries it has been an important center for the production of luster ceramics. Today, it is still the home of luster ware production and ceramic artists in Iran.
What is luster ware and why is it associated with Kashan?
The name “lusterware” comes from the iridescent or lustrous effect on the ceramic, which looks shiny. Metal oxides are used to create a golden or copper like shine which is very resistant and durable. The red-gold like lustrous effect adds more value to the ceramic, making it luxury ware.
This technology of making luster has a long and sophisticated history. Initially, the technology of luster decoration was related to glassmaking. The earliest datable example of luster decoration is found on a glass goblet found at Fustāt (the old city of Cairo), dated to 773 A.D during the Abbasid era. It has been suggested that the technique developed from certain types of late Roman enameled glass. However, fragments of early luster ceramics have been found in the Caliphal Palace at Samarra in Iraq. It is close to a thousand kilometers from Samarra to Kashan! Then how did the technique and form spread?
It is thought that luster ware, which first spread westwards from Egypt and Syria, also reached the south of Europe, al-Andalus (the Islamic Iberian Peninsula). During the 10th and 11th centuries, Fustāt was the center of luster ware production, but this center disappeared when the Fatimid Caliphate that ruled Egypt at the time fell and the city caught fire. It is likely that ceramic artists from Egypt went to Kashan and the once vanished luster ware production reappeared in Iran. A place can become a center for ceramic production due to advantage in access to natural resources, craftsmanship and patronage. Jindezhen in China, for example, became famous for its porcelain because kaolin, a key mud material for porcelain production, was found in the region. Kashan was no different. Kashan was naturally endowed with high quality clay and essential minerals (e.g. silver, copper oxides) required for the production of the metallic luster glaze. In addition, Kashan was already an established center for ceramic production before the high-quality luster ware was produced here. From the Islamic world to Europe, luster ceramic is indeed at the crossroads of cultural transmission. The museum has made a video to show the history of the spread of the technique.
Spreading the Secret: Technique of Luster-Pottery | Museum für Islamische Kunst (English)
More than 700-year-old recipe
Historians understand the process of making luster ware thanks to the existence of a more than 700-year-old recipe by Abū al-Qāsim Kāshānī, who came from a family of ceramists going back at least four generations. The process of making luster ware is considered to be complicated and special, described by Kāshānī as "a kind of alchemy".
“Take one and a half part of yellow vitriol and a quarter of a part of roasted copper, and mix it to a paste and grind it. A quarter of this is mixed with six dirhams of pure silver which has been burned and ground with sulphur and is ground on a stone for twenty-four hours until it is extremely fine. Dissolve this in some grape juice or vinegar and paint it onto the vessels as desired, and place them in a second kiln specially made for this purpose, and give them light smoke for seventy-two hours until the color of two firings. When they are cold take them out and rub them with a damp cloth so that the color of gold comes out……”
(From Abū al-Qāsim Kāshānī ’s treatise, 1301)
This recipe clearly explained the two firings in two different kilns, using copper and silver in the pigment, actually quite similar to how we make luster ceramics today.
Making luster wares today
In 2022, Museum für Islamische Kunst organized a luster ceramics workshop with Iranian ceramic artist Abbas Akbari who is a master for luster wares. Akbari currently lives in Kashan.
Akbari follows Kāshānī’s recipe, and explains that luster ware requires two rounds of "firing." First, a vessel is prepared from clay and left to dry. An initial glaze is applied prior to the first firing. After cooling, the vessel is painted a second time with a pigment. The pigment used for creating luster is a compound of silver and copper mixed with refractory earth. The second firing of the painted object takes place in a kiln with low oxygen, allowing a chemical process to occur in which the metal melts into the softened glaze. Finally, the object is rubbed, revealing the shimmering luster.
In the video filmed in Kashan, we visit Abbas Akbari's studio to observe how lusterware is created.
Designs on luster wares
In addition to the metallic, shiny surface that maintains the quality of luster ware, we have to look at the beautiful designs to understand why luster ware has been so popular for so long. It often has figurative designs, repeating patterns and later designs with small scratched loops and curls.
A large plate in the museum's collection is a perfect example of this, with an eagle facing left in the center, so dominant that it protrudes above the surface, standing on the edge surrounded by curving leaf tendrils. We can see that different colors are used here, one is a reddish-brown color commonly seen in luster ware and the other is dark blue. The dark blue glaze is used on the underside of the plate and, interestingly, the dark blue glaze is dropped over the eagle's head. And of course, it shines under the light.
From Kashan to Berlin: collecting a luster prayer niche
Kashan and Berlin have a special relationship because of a magnificent luster prayer niche (in Arabic: mihrab) from Kashan. This niche, made up of the luster panels, now in Museum für Islamische Kunst, measures 2.80 metres high by 1.84 metres wide. Signed by the ceramicist al-Hasan ibn 'Arabshah and dated 1226 AD, it is one of the few surviving large prayer niches of this type in the world.
These luster panels were acquired in 1927 from the private collection of John Richard Preece (1843-1917), who had bought them in Kashan and brought them to England. Originally used in the Meydan Mosque (or Emād al-Dīn Mosque) in Kashan, the luster panels adorned a niche wall of the central dome chamber in the prayer hall of the Meydan Mosque.
How to transport such a large object?
Actually, this mihrab is produced with help of smaller pieces and then installed into the wall. Abbas Akbari has worked years to reconstruct the mihrab with his art project “An Oriental Devotion.”
Behind the stage: repairing a lusterware in the Museum
Another master piece of luster ceramic in the Museum für Islamische Kunst is a loan from Ludwig foundation. This vase is almost a thousand years old, and it shows vivid human and animal figures. How do the conservator team from the museum restore this vase?
This video below provides a unique insight into their exciting day-to-day work.
A comprehensive publication
If you want to know more about Kashan and its luster wares, you must not miss the publication by the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin in 2022, with the research efforts from the experts in this field.
Additional readings:
https://iranicaonline.org/articles/kashan-vii-kashan-ware
Watson, Oliver. Persian Luster Wares, Faber & Faber, 1985.
About the Author:
Shunhua Jin is an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Museum für Islamische Kunst. Her research explores Islamic material culture in China, with a focus on mosques. She also works on the iconography of Persian ceramics and book arts, and their relation to East Asian art.
This story is part of the project "Crossroads Iran (ایران: محل تلاقی)", supported by the Ludwig Foundation through the Friends of the Museum for Islamic Art. The project explores and highlights narratives with Iran at the crossroads of cultural exchange and artistic influence. It aims to connects museum objects with archival photos, making them accessible through stories and videos on the online portal.
Read more related stories
Europeans in a Persian blue and white pottery
Global trade and its dynamics. Motifs of Chinese and European art on blue and white ceramics from Iran.
Mihrab Tile from Kashan
In this provenance research story, we trace the origins of a tile that entered the museum collection in Berlin from Spain, but was probably made in the workshops of Kashan.
A Poetic Painting from Qajar Era
Exploring the themes of feminine forms and celestial elements in the 19th century Qajar era painting.
