The question is, how can I tell if it would fall within the range of acceptable pottery for my period? (@1305)... It seems very close, and I would much rather have something that is not a duplicate of the same feastware that every other participant has on the table.

The major finds seem to be a glazed terra cotta, with simple designs in black and yellow sort of drizzled into the glaze, if that makes sense. Several sizes of plate, a krater (footed bowl), some jugs, bowls, and canisters. I will try to take some pictures and scan them if somebody would like to see them.

Thanks for your patience,
Ziad

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Here's a picture of a couple of spanish plates, iirc they are believed to be 14th century, but I'll have a look at my books when I get back home.

The picture is from:
Gaimster, David & Redknap, Mark. Everyday and Exotic Pottery from Europe. Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford OX1 1HN: 1992.
Colour Plate IIe,f.

Here are some descriptions of regional Spanish pottery from the 14th and 15th centuries. The book deals with pottery that has been found in Northern Europe (mostly England and the Netherlands) but much of the pottery discussed is imports from major production centers. So the pottery described is the stuff that was nice enough to be exported.

Some notes on a technical term - Fabric refers to a description of the clay used in making the pottery; color and the amount and type of grit mixed in are commonly used to identify the location the pottery was made.

Mitake.
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John G. Hurst, David S. Neal, HJE van Beuningen; Pottery Produced and Traded in North-West Europe 1350-1650. Rotterdam Papers VI, 1986. ISBN 90-6918-009-x

Pg. 38 -
11. Catalonia: Catalan Blue
Catalan potters working in Barcelona are well documented from the 14th to the 15th century. Barcelona was a centre of tin-glazed production in the 14th century producing designs with typical Mediterranean green and brown decoration and in the 15th century both at Barcelona and at Paterna outside Valencia, painted blue wares were also made.
...
It has a fine red fabric with buff surfaces and with a matt tin glaze on the outside only. The forms comprise squat albarelli [cylindrical jars] with heavy footrings, tall albarelli and dishes.
The albarelli have rosettes and foliage in zones between horizontal bands and the dishes have zoomorphic and geometric designs.

Pg 40 -
12 Paterna: Paterna Blue
In the 13th and 14th centuries green and brown wares were made in and around Valencia but the 14th and 15th centuries blue painted wares were more common, particuarly at Paterna six kilometers north-west of Valencia. Here blue painted wares have been found at the kiln site stratified above levels containing green and brown wares suggesting transition. Botanical patterns are common to both Catalonia and Valencia but geometric Islamic patterns are typical of paterna.
...
It has a red-brown sandy fabric with buff surfaces and a white tin-glaze. Only tall albarelli and bowls with a simple upright rim and footring have been found in north-west Europe but dishes, jugs and pedestal-handled lamps were also produced.
Decoration comprises painted blue zoomorphic, botanical, heraldic and geometric patterns including chevrons, parallel lines, spirals and rosettes in zones.

Pf 40,42
13. Valencia: Early Valencian Lustreware
Production of lustreware was centered in Malaga, Andalusia, in the 13th and 14th centuries but the increasing power of the Christian kingdoms made it difficult for Muslims to trade. Many of the potters therefore migrated to Manises, eight kilometers west of Valencia in the middle of the 14th century and continued to make similar shapes and patterns of decoration to those they had previously made in Malaga. There is therefore difficulty in telling late Andalusian and Early Valencian wares apart, but fortunately the clays are quite distictive and Mannoni has shown that the Malaga fabrics contain tabular fragments of reddish-brown schistose metamorphic rock while the Valencian fabrics contain sparse inclusions of quarts, iron ore, chert and limestone in a matix of finely divided calcium carbonate and anisotropic minerals. ...
It has an off-white or pink sandy fabric with buff surfaces and a white tin-glaze inside and outside of the bowls and dishes. All the examples found in the Low Coutries are large flanged bowls with footrings, or dishes, but jugs and albarelli were also made and found at a number of sites in Britain.
Their decoration comprise Islamic geometric and botanical patterns based on Andalusian types of the 13th and 14th centuries. The Radiating zones, rough interlace, trees of life and foliage spirals painted in lustre and blue are characteristic examples.

Thanks again, and I will let you know what I find.

Ziad

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