This tile is from a known series which comprises large tiles with the full inscription divided between them, together with a group of smaller tile, each of which have a floral centre and the inscription around the sides. An example of the latter type was sold in these rooms 27 April 1993, lot 156. Four of the group of larger tiles of which this is an example survive. Two, the second and third from the original series, are in a private collection (Treasures of Islam, exhibition catalogue, Geneva 1985, no.239, p.237), while two more, the fifth and seventh, are in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Lentz, T.W. and Lowry, G.D.: Timur and the Princely Vision, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles 1989, no.113A, pp.213 and 352).

The full inscription reads: 'This building was built at the order of the Sultan, the Greatest, Abu'l Muzaffar Sultan Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, may God perpetuate his kingship, by Nusrat al-Din Muhammad in the year 860'. The present tile has the final part of the name of the artisan together with the start of the date.