SPANISH BOWLS
The Museum’s significant collection of small Spanish bowls and jugs, decorated in cobalt blue on white glaze and lustre, dates to the second half of the 14th century. These pieces feature Moorish-inspired geometric decorations and pseudo-writing motifs, created in the Valencian workshops of Paterna and Manises by ceramists who had emigrated from Andalusia. The predominant lustre decorations include “bryony vine” and ivy leaves on backgrounds filled with acacia tendrils. The examples in the Textile Museum exhibit simpler designs: stars within squares, palmettes within squares, concentric circles, and starry polygons.