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Lot Essay
All the inscriptions on the tiles are Persian verses except the one at one end with birds in the centre. That has Qur'an, sura al-nasr (cx), with no date. Of those with arabesque designs, one is dated fi rabi' al-akhar sab'a wa sab'ami'a, Rabi'II (707/October-November, 1307), another one dated fi shuhur sana sitta [wa sab'ami'a] "during the course of the year [70]6/(1307-08)", and one fi shuhur sana "during the course of the year"
A very similar panel of tiles, also with an old German provenance, was sold in these Rooms 29 April 2003, lot 148. A related further example with fewer tiles, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Komaroff, Linda and Carboni, Stefano: The Legacy of Ghengis Khan, New york, 2002, fig.120, p.102; Watson, Oliver: Persian Lustre Ware, London, 1985, pl.M - detail only).
Sheila Blair showed that the shrine of 'Abd al-Samad in Natanz, near Kashan, contained a dado of six rows of star and cross tiles topped by a band of moulded inscribed frieze tiles (Blair, S.: The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran, Cambridge, Mass, 1986). The larger frieze tiles suffer, as do the present tiles, from the attention of an iconoclast in times past who has carefully chipped off the heads of each and every bird. The date of the frieze is given as Shawwal 707/March-April 1308 on a tile in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Carbone, Stefano and Masuya, Tomoko: Persian Tiles, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1993, no.20, p.25). Whether all the present tiles came from the shrine in Natanz is not certain. However, a combination of this panel and the one formerly sold in these Rooms shows that the tiles with birds and koranic inscriptions all have defaced heads similar to those in the large frieze tiles, while those with arabesques have Persian verses and dates of 1307-8AD, exactly matching the date on the frieze tiles. This indicates two different series within the same original shrine complex.
A very similar panel of tiles, also with an old German provenance, was sold in these Rooms 29 April 2003, lot 148. A related further example with fewer tiles, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Komaroff, Linda and Carboni, Stefano: The Legacy of Ghengis Khan, New york, 2002, fig.120, p.102; Watson, Oliver: Persian Lustre Ware, London, 1985, pl.M - detail only).
Sheila Blair showed that the shrine of 'Abd al-Samad in Natanz, near Kashan, contained a dado of six rows of star and cross tiles topped by a band of moulded inscribed frieze tiles (Blair, S.: The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran, Cambridge, Mass, 1986). The larger frieze tiles suffer, as do the present tiles, from the attention of an iconoclast in times past who has carefully chipped off the heads of each and every bird. The date of the frieze is given as Shawwal 707/March-April 1308 on a tile in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Carbone, Stefano and Masuya, Tomoko: Persian Tiles, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1993, no.20, p.25). Whether all the present tiles came from the shrine in Natanz is not certain. However, a combination of this panel and the one formerly sold in these Rooms shows that the tiles with birds and koranic inscriptions all have defaced heads similar to those in the large frieze tiles, while those with arabesques have Persian verses and dates of 1307-8AD, exactly matching the date on the frieze tiles. This indicates two different series within the same original shrine complex.