Lusterware, a specialty of Deruta ceramics, epitomizes the ways in which technologies and aesthetics move and persevere through time and space. The highly prized iridescent effect was invented in Iraq in the 9th century and encouraged “pleasurable wonder” (ajab), inducing a physical reaction to a constantly changing object depending on the light and the position of the viewer. This technique made its way through the Islamic world to Spain and then to Italy in the 15th century, where this esteemed technological achievement continued to capture the same “pleasurable wonder” from spectators. Today, the effect of this Deruta maiolica lusterware dish is no less marvelous than it was over a millennium ago.