Byzantium, ca. 12th century CE. An elegant example of Byzantine sgraffito ware, the bowl of a round form on a ring foot with an attractive decorative program comprised of two bands of flowing, almost calligraphic motifs gracing the interior walls and a tondo with abstract heart-like forms filled with concentric arch marks, these surrounded by borders of wave and arch motifs. The artisan incised these very thin designs through a buff slip into the slightly darker ceramic clay. This piece probably lay underwater for centuries with most under the sea floor while sea life covered a section; hence remains of shells and a sponge encrust its surface. Size: 8.125" in diameter x 2.875" H (20.6 cm x 7.3 cm)

Byzantine pottery workshops that created glazed ware for domestic use based their designs on vessels made of silver or other precious metals. They used the technique called sgraffito, with the design incised through a white slip coating to reveal the red clay body beneath. These bowls were made and exported throughout the Empire. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has as part of its collection a very similar piece that was found in the Aegean. In the past few decades, there have been a tremendous amount of Byzantine shipwrecks discovered; for example, there is currently a major project excavating 37 individual wrecks from a site called Yenikapi, which was a port in Constantinople, that is being excavated as part of the construction of a new high speed rail tunnel under the Bosporus -- the largest collection of ships ever uncovered from a single site.

Provenance: private New Jersey USA collection, acquired over twenty years ago

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#121297

Chips to rim and base as shown. A section of the surface is encrusted with sea deposits.