A KASHAN MOULDED LUSTRE, COBALT-BLUE AND TURQUOISE RECTANGULAR TILE, moulded with a cusped arched band of scrolling vine on a lustre ground around a cobalt-blue naskh inscription enclosing a reserved scrolling arabesque motif, the spandrels with scrolling vine terminating in animal heads, the upper band with scrolling interlaced arabesques on a lustre ground, a small lower band of stylised kufic, circa 1270-1275 (very slight iridescence in a few places)

Details

A KASHAN MOULDED LUSTRE, COBALT-BLUE AND TURQUOISE RECTANGULAR TILE, moulded with a cusped arched band of scrolling vine on a lustre ground around a cobalt-blue naskh inscription enclosing a reserved scrolling arabesque motif, the spandrels with scrolling vine terminating in animal heads, the upper band with scrolling interlaced arabesques on a lustre ground, a small lower band of stylised kufic, circa 1270-1275 (very slight iridescence in a few places)
11 3/8in. (28.8cm.) square

Lot Essay

A tile from Takht-i Sulaiman, datable to 1270-75 AD, comprising almost identical decorative details belongs to the Bargello Museum ( Inv. no. 1966, Watson, O., Persian Lustre Ware, London, 1985, p. 135, fig. 112).

Published by A.S. Melikian-Chirvani: "Le livre des rois, miroir du destin, il Takht-i Soleyman et la symbolique du Shah-Nameh", Studia Iranica, XX, fasc. 1, 1991, pl. XI, fig. 18.

The text has been read as: "Feridun o Hushang-e Yazdanparast". The inscription of this tile and others of the same group consist of passages from the Shahnameh.

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