“The golden age of Spanish ceramics began in the mid-13th century with the production at Málaga of luster pottery.  Reported by Muslim writers as peerless in beauty, this ‘golden’ ware was admired in the Moorish kingdom of Granada, as well as shipped to Sicily, Egypt, and outlying regions of the Hispanic peninsula.  England imported Málaga luster as early as 1303, and by the time another century had passed, Muslim potters had carried the art of luster painting to Murcia and Valencia.

How the potters of Málaga first learned the well-guarded methods for producing luster on the surface of tin-glaze can be explained by a probable migration of artisans from Iran or countries of the eastern Mediterranean to southern Spain.  Bearing out this supposition, the patterns on Spanish lusterware show a close relationship with the designs on the pottery of Rayy, Kashan and Raqqa.  Combined with distinctly Eastern motifs are others in the traditionally Andalusian style that had evolved in the Iberian peninsula under the rule of the North African Moors, the Almohades (1174-1212).

Although small vessels, such as bowls, dishes, and pitchers were usual products of the kilns at Málaga, the most astonishing pieces of luster are great wing-handled vases, standing between three and four feet high, found nowhere else in the Islamic world.  In the Alhambra at Granada, where several of them were unearthed, the vases served as ornaments in rooms opening on the palace gardens and patios.  Of the nine or so wing-handled vases known at present, certainly the called the ‘Alhambra vase’, since it never left the confines of the palace, is the most famous.  Found  perhaps a century later in time than a well-known vase at Leningrad, it is taller and slimmer in shape, with a more gracefully curved line to the collar.  Among Hispano-Moresque motifs painted on it in blue and a dull, brownish gold are pairs of confronted gazelles, represented in a schematic manner.

To build the large and complex shapes of these vases in clay required skill, since the potter had to form them in separate parts, later fitting the sections together.  The entire piece was then fired, after which the white tin-glaze was applied to the surfaces.  If blue designs were to be a part of the decorative scheme, the colour was brushed directly on the crude white and the vessel, then fired in the glost kiln.  The luster, a thin film of metal which formed when the oxides or sulphides of copper and silver were reduced in a low-temperature kiln, was applied in liquid form directly on the already fired tin-glaze.  The designs were painted with brushes and quills.”

World Ceramics:  An illustrated history, edited by Robert J Charleston (pg. 139-140)

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