Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-08-03

lane ID owes much to its great col
's .o,s who use their wealth to pre-
W. from destruction any object OF
ei'e ,hiob if could i'll afford to lose,
is true that other motives .han M 'ne
love of beauty go to feed the
s1,ectors lrs passion. There are the prlde
connoisseurship and the excitement
t the game. >noe+a
- bp one of the first IN ne"
:, ond the great collector OF today
1,oo+s no country and no period in
,:ah art was practiced. Prices f1uc-
- bnt in general an object really
ond artistic is sure to grow IN
- ',,o IN discover such an object the
n.o+or,s eve ranges from London to
...+ontinople and from Teheran to
ro.io lust now it is very likely to
ave in view some bargain in Persian
uster.
rhose surprising metallic reflections,
bose unforeseen flashes of ruby, emer-
I'D and macre which constitute the
unoc;a1 charm of lustered wares, were
douhtless at the beginning due to ae-
oidonts in firing. A composition OF
s;,or and copper seems at an early
date to have been substituted for gold.
ond this. forming a firm uneyenly
ov;dized glowed in a side light with
all the colors of the rainbow.
n not discovered in Persia it was
at any rate developed there to its
greatest artistic perfection. 1t seems
tn have required a very light touch
and a somewhat rough paste to bring
out its full brilliancy.
Merits Of the Lustre.
The luster ITSELF. e., the metallic
pigment-is exceedingly thin. 1t is al
ways applied over the glaze and but
slightly fired. Hence it is often al
most completely worn away, and as
tiles or vessels in perfect condition
are always rare and expensive they
are among the most valuable curiosl-
ties in the great European collections.
American collectors. as a rule, have
only just awakened to it's merits.
Horace's "Persios obi apparatus de-.
not apply to Persian luster for in his
day it had not been invented. We
first hear Of lustered wares in the ac-
counts of Arab travellers in Egypt and
Spain, in the tenth century. Excava-
tions at old Cargo nave yielded frag-
ments of that age and others have
been found at Braminabad. in India
but We know as yet of nothing so early
from Spain or from Persia itself.
The oldest datable Persian tiles are
of the thirteenth century. Still, every
thing points to Persia as the country
where painting in luster originated.
Thence it must have spread to the
banks of the Indus on the one hand and
OF the Guadalquivir on the other. From
Spain it reached Italy, in the fifteenth
century, and from Spain also it must
nave been introduced into Mexico,
where the Indians have preserved the
secret to the nraSant dav
Through the whole width of the Ary-
an world, excepting Italy, Persian de.
sign has accompanied Persian luster,
and Persian flowers and animals, the
rose, the iris, the vine, the tulip, the
nightingale and the gazelle-in short,
the whole stock in trade of Persian
poets and limners may be found, often
SO conventionalized as to be scarcely
recognized, on the platters made for
spanish and Italian ecclesiastical dig
nilarles by the superficially Christian
ized &oors of old Valencia Indeed,
Fefslan decorative motives sometimes
appear even on the Italian luster
piaques of Gubbia and Castel Durante.
TWO important Periods.
III the history of Persian luster pro-
per, TWO important periods are to be
distinguished. The designs on the old
est fragments show decided traces Of
~ yzahtlne influence Their art is that
OF the old Byzantine provinces, and
Should be called Eastern medieval
tather than Mahometan. In the thir-
seehth and fourteenth centuries it
grew IN Persia to a new art. Even
'neA the human figure, although ban
neQ by Mahometan prejudices, was not
uncommon; but instead of meager By
-dHtlne saints uncomfort ah1y thrOned