Vessel Fragment with Polo Stick Emblem

This ceramic dishware fragment was decorated with sgraffito, a technique in which an artist applies colored slip or glaze to a piece of pottery and then incises it to reveal the contrasting color of the clay underneath. The artist applied more glaze on top of the sgraffito to create the design in the center of the dish, which depicts two polo sticks (jūkān). Polo was a popular sport among the Mamluks. This design was the standard blazon, or heraldic emblem, of the polo master (jūkandār), a member of the court given the honor of handing the sultan his polo sticks before the ruler played.