A similar vase was at the Alhambra until the beginning of the present century; it disappeared at that time, and its present whereabouts is unknown. Drawings exist of this vase which have been published in Lozano's "Ant. Arab. de España," and Murphy's Atlas of "Arabian Ant. of Spain."
The fine vase at the Museo Arq. of Madrid is similar in style. It has been reproduced in a chromo-lithograph in Mus. Esp. de Ant. VI. p. 435. Both these vases are decorated with colours which are disposed in quite a distinct manner to all the other specimens of this pottery hitherto known. The vase at Granada is ornamented in the centre with two antelopes, and from drawings which have reached us of the companion vase, we find birds are introduced in the decoration of the handles. Animals combined with ornamentation are never met with in the immense number of Moorish traceries of all kinds which may be studied at Granada. This circumstance has induced me to consider these objects to have been brought from Persia, for Ben Batutah tells us that several Persians of importance had settled at Granada; and it is highly probable that a direct communication existed between these two countries. It is fair, however, to mention a detail which is against this argument. The arms of the Moorish kings of Granada appear on the vase which has disappeared from Granada, and although it may have been ordered from Persia, it is also possible that it was made in the province of Andalucia.
The vase which belonged to Fortuny, and the large azulejo, Nos. 42, 44 (vide "Atelier de Fortuny"), are very different in style. They have no colours, and their metallic lustre is very low in tone, a common circumstance in Hispano-Moorish pottery. The following inscription,
"Glory to Our Lord the Sultan Abul Hajaj," [A.D. 1333-1354.] occurs on this tile, an inscription very frequently met with also on the walls of the Alhambra. Abul Hajaj carried out works of restoration to a very large extent at the Palace. The two large tiles on either side of the entrance-door of the Cuarto Real de Santo Domingo at Granada, although not so fine as the vase and tile which belonged to Fortuny, are similar in general character, and it is safe therefore to consider these objects, and others of a similar kind, to have proceeded from the manufacture of Malaga mentioned by Ben Batutah, or other pottery works of the same kind, which probably existed at that time in the province of Granada.
Metallic-lustred dishes have at times an even surface without ornamentation in relief, and sometimes are ornamented with ribs and convex dots, which appear to suggest that they are meant to imitate the structure of nails, bars, or other work common to metal vessels, in the manner of Etruscan vases.
The finest specimens of Hispano-Moresque ware at the Kensington Museum are—