A MAMLUK HEXAGONAL POTTERY TILE
These lots have been imported from outside the EU … Read more PROPERTY FROM THE DESCENDANTS OF LOCKWOOD THE FOREST
A MAMLUK HEXAGONAL POTTERY TILE

DAMASCUS, SYRIA, 15TH CENTURY

Details
A MAMLUK HEXAGONAL POTTERY TILE
DAMASCUS, SYRIA, 15TH CENTURY
The white ground painted in cobalt-blue with two ewers alternated with elongated leaf motifs
7 5/8in. (19.4cm.) across
Provenance
Lockwood de Forest, late 19th century, and thence by descent to the present owner
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Sara Plumbly
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Lot Essay

Similar Mamluk tiles with depictions of ewers feature in the tomb and mosque of Tawrizi in Damascus. Two others are in the Cairo Museum and one is in Sidon. The ewers seem all to be based on metal prototypes with curving spouts and handles and angular splayed feet. Although the form of the ewers is hard to parallel in the corpus of metalwork ewers of the 15th century, a possible prototype comes in the form of a similar ewer painted on a Nishapur dish of the 11th century in the British Museum (John Carswell, 'Six Tiles' in Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972, p.102). There is also obvious and possible symbolism with ritual ablution (Esin Atil, Renaissance of Islam. Art of the Mamluks, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1981, p.179).

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