Matiari, Sindh. Potter Hala, with pottery

Portrait of potter, standing with examples of Hala pottery work, at Hala near Matiari in Sind, Pakistan, taken by Henry Cousens in 1896, from the Archaeological Survey of India Collections: Western India 1894-96. This three-quarter length portrait shows the potter with examples of Hala pottery. Hala, thirty-five miles north of Haidarabad, was the main centre of pottery manufacture in Sind. Both tiles and ornamental pottery are produced at Hala. Due to their reputation some of the potters from Sind and Multan were brough to the Bombay School of Art to superintend. Cousens wrote in 'The Antiquities of Sind' of 1929, "The brickwork...is very superior, the bricks, or, at least, those on the surface, being made of the best pottery clay, perfectly formed and dense, having cleanly-cut sharp edges, and of a rich dark red. The enamelled bricks are glazed, upon their outer surfaces, in light and dark blue and white...The coloured dadoes are an especially fine feature...A single design, without duplication, will sometimes cover several square yards of surface...Then, again, some tiles are as small as half an inch square, and over a hundred are used in a square foot, of mixed sizes, forming a perfect mosaic..."