Fritware/Stonepaste
Iran/Central Plateau, Iraq/Lower Mesopotamia, Egypt/Delta/Lower Egypt, Syria/Euphrates River valley, Turkey/Western Black Sea
deliberate inclusions of "frit" (ground glass), quartz, or other silaceous materials
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Commonly referred to as stonepaste or fritware (also called faience or kashi), this fabric is an artificial ceramic body developed in the Medieval Islamic world that achieves very refined, porcelain-like vessels.
Ground glass (frit) and other silica materials such as quartz are deliberately added to clay. The resulting fabric is fired at controlled, low temperatures and creates a fine, white body. Vessels made in fritware are typically glazed in one of three methods: silicate-based glazes/ vitreous coatings, efflorescence, or cementation.
Fritware was used in many well-known Islamic wares such as Raqqa ware, Iznik pottery, and lusterware. Notably, it is considered by many scholars to be an independent invetion of the Islamic world.
Mason, R. B., and M. S. Tite. "The Beginnings of Islamic Stonepaste Technology." Archaeometry, vol. 36, no. 1, Feb. 1994, pp. 77–91
(Temporary description by Faith Hart)
Baghdad fritware petrofabric: "...the body can be seen to comprise a vesicular matrix typical of well-fired calcareous clay, containing grains of quartz, feldspars. ferromagnesian minerals, and a large relict glass fragment containing voids and long acicular crystals. There are other smaller inclusions of this nature elsewhere in the field of view. Chemical analysis revealed that these inclusions are fragments of an alkali-lime-lead-silica glass. in some cases also containing tin (see Table 1 j. The crystals within the relict glass fragment are of calcium silicate (wollastonite). magnesium calcium silicate (diopsidej and a silica polymorph (tridymite or cristobalite) which have formed during firing or cooling (Mason and Tite 1994, p. 80)."
Commonly referred to as stonepaste or fritware (also called faience or kashi), this fabric is an artificial ceramic body developed in the Medieval Islamic world that achieves very refined, porcelain-like vessels.
Ground glass (frit) and other silica materials such as quartz are deliberately added to clay. The resulting fabric is fired at controlled, low temperatures and creates a fine, white body. Vessels made in fritware are typically glazed in one of three methods: silicate-based glazes/ vitreous coatings, efflorescence, or cementation.
Fritware was used in many well-known Islamic wares such as Raqqa ware, Iznik pottery, and lusterware. Notably, it is considered by many scholars to be an independent invetion of the Islamic world.
Mason, R. B., and M. S. Tite. "The Beginnings of Islamic Stonepaste Technology." Archaeometry, vol. 36, no. 1, Feb. 1994, pp. 77–91
(Temporary description by Faith Hart)
