the royal enceinte at the Alhambra has yielded objects of extraordinary quality, both imported and produced locally. This latter group includes a series of ceramic vases of monumental dimensions with wing-shaped handles magnificently decorated in lustre known as 'Alhambra vases',because various examples were unearthed in the palace in the eighteenth century. Eight of these pieces have survived in a reasonable condition; together with countless fragments, they demonstrate the spread of prestigious pieces which,with an average height of well over a metre, appear to have been a largest wares in this technique. The object illustrated, from Malaga, belongs to the most recent type, characterized by a more elongated and elegant shape and nearly entirely covered with dazzling cobalt blue and gold decorations. It shows a brace of gazelles facing each other, while the calligraphy, which in earlier examples proudly strode with great angular letters over the body of the vase, is reduced here to a modest ribbon of cursive script round the belly.