Vessel Fragment with Fleur-de-lis Emblems (Mamluk dynasty (1250–1517), 14th–15th century): Artwork and History

Vessel Fragment with Fleur-de-lis Emblems (Mamluk dynasty (1250–1517), 14th–15th century) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Islamic; Fustat (now Cairo), Egypt.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This ceramic fragment was decorated using sgraffito, a technique in which an artist applied a colored slip or glaze to pottery, then incised it to reveal the contrasting color of the clay underneath. This fragment once formed part of a dish made in Fustat (now Cairo), Egypt, the capital of the Mamluk dynasty (1250–1517), whose rule extended beyond the modern borders of Egypt into the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. The repeated emblem on the edge of this bowl likely represents a position in the Mamluk military government, providing a clue as to who may have commissioned it. The design is known as a fleur-de-lis, a stylized silhouette of a lily.

Object facts

• Title: Vessel Fragment with Fleur-de-lis Emblems
• Date: Mamluk dynasty (1250–1517), 14th–15th century
• Artist attribution: Islamic; Fustat (now Cairo), Egypt
• Place of origin: Old Cairo
• Medium: Glazed ceramic
• Dimensions: 12.2 × 19 × 0.8 cm (4 13/16 × 7 1/2 × 3/8 in.)
• Type: Vessel
• Department: Arts of Africa
• Reference number: 1925.463

Collection credit

Logan-Patten-Ryerson collection

View the original

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.