CENTRAL IRAN, MID-13TH CENTURY

Kashan lustre tiles dating from before the Mongol invasion are very rare, except for very small star tiles. Oliver Watson notes a group of three large square tiles decorated with scenes from the Shahnameh in the "monumental" style (Watson, Oliver: Persian Lustre Pottery, London, 1985, p.123, note 2). The best known of these is in the Keir Collection and has an inscription stating the subject (Grube, Ernst: Islamic Pottery of the Eighth to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976, no.182, pp.248-250, pl.p.247). The same collection also has a tile painted in considerably finer detail, possibly composite, with numerous figures all placed on the diagonal (no.183, pp.250-254, pl.facing p.233). While this latter is extremely finely painted, the style of our tile is closer to the Shahnameh examples, although it is executed in the "miniature" style rather than that of the Keir tile, and is also worked on a smaller scale. Like the Keir tile however it appears to depict a narrative scene with oversize figures, and is delineated within a simple striped border. Quite what the subject of the scene depicts is not clear; Pope suggests that it could be the entry of Christ into Jerusalem (Pope, op. cit., p.1556) .

Only one other tile painted in the 'miniature style' is known, recorded by Pope as being with Minassian (op. cit., p.1556).