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Lot Essay
Text:
On the cross tile- Qur'an I (al-Fataha), Qur'an CXII (al-Ikhlas) and Qur'an CXIV (al-Nas); on the star tiles, clockwise from top right- Qur'an I (al-Fataha) and Qur'an CXII (al-Ikhlas); Qur'an I (al-Fataha) and Qur'an CXII (al-Ikhlas); Qur'an III:26, dated Muharram 661/November 1262; Qur'an XVIII (al-Kahf): 25-29
The interior of the Imamzadeh Yahya, a small but exquisite shrine in Veramin in Northern Iran, was once covered in tiles such as this. The crisp drawing of the lustre-painted decoration makes them amongst the finest to come from any pre-Mongol monument in Iran.
Most of these tiles are now in private collections or in museums and have been widely published. The British Museum has a large collection, several of them dated (V. Porter, Islamic Tiles, London, 1995, pl. 19, p. 35.) and the Victoria and Albert Museum also has some (A. Lane, A Guide to the Collection of Tiles, London, 1960, pl.3A and in O. Watson, Persian Lustre Ware, London, 1985, pl.K.). Some tiles are also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (S. Carboni and T. Masuya, Persian Tiles, New York, 1993, pl. 10a-c, p. 15). The spectacular mihrab from this shrine is in the late Doris Duke's Hawaii mansion (S. Littlefield, Doris Duke's Shangri La, Honolulu, 2002, p. 19).
Two similar tiles (fragments) of the J.W.N. van Achterbergh collection are on loan in the study collection of the Princessehof, Leeuwarden.
On the cross tile- Qur'an I (al-Fataha), Qur'an CXII (al-Ikhlas) and Qur'an CXIV (al-Nas); on the star tiles, clockwise from top right- Qur'an I (al-Fataha) and Qur'an CXII (al-Ikhlas); Qur'an I (al-Fataha) and Qur'an CXII (al-Ikhlas); Qur'an III:26, dated Muharram 661/November 1262; Qur'an XVIII (al-Kahf): 25-29
The interior of the Imamzadeh Yahya, a small but exquisite shrine in Veramin in Northern Iran, was once covered in tiles such as this. The crisp drawing of the lustre-painted decoration makes them amongst the finest to come from any pre-Mongol monument in Iran.
Most of these tiles are now in private collections or in museums and have been widely published. The British Museum has a large collection, several of them dated (V. Porter, Islamic Tiles, London, 1995, pl. 19, p. 35.) and the Victoria and Albert Museum also has some (A. Lane, A Guide to the Collection of Tiles, London, 1960, pl.3A and in O. Watson, Persian Lustre Ware, London, 1985, pl.K.). Some tiles are also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (S. Carboni and T. Masuya, Persian Tiles, New York, 1993, pl. 10a-c, p. 15). The spectacular mihrab from this shrine is in the late Doris Duke's Hawaii mansion (S. Littlefield, Doris Duke's Shangri La, Honolulu, 2002, p. 19).
Two similar tiles (fragments) of the J.W.N. van Achterbergh collection are on loan in the study collection of the Princessehof, Leeuwarden.