Lustreware

Lustreware is pottery or porcelain finished with a metallic glaze that gives its surface an iridescent, reflective shine. The technique applies a mixture of metallic oxides, usually silver or copper compounds, over an already glazed surface and then fires the piece a second time at a lower temperature in a reducing kiln, fusing a very thin metallic layer onto the glaze. It was first developed in Mesopotamia during the early ninth century under the Abbasid Caliphate, in cities such as Baghdad, Basra and Kufa, and it later spread to Fatimid Egypt, Persia, Syria and Islamic Spain, becoming a prized luxury good valued for resembling precious metal.