CENTRAL IRAN, EARLY 14TH CENTURY

Details

TWO KASHAN MOULDED TILES
CENTRAL IRAN, EARLY 14TH CENTURY
From the underside of a large arch, each moulded under the glaze with a complex pattern of interlaced elegant arabesques linking open palmettes and knotted panels, the motifs left white and double-outlined in plain and dotted black against a cobalt-blue ground, a few interstices coloured turquoise, the two tiles joining along a shaped line, each tile missing at one end, areas of surface iridescence, one tile with repaired break
Overall 20 x 9¼in. (51 x 23.5cm.) (2)

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Lot Essay

These two tiles comes from a curving frieze and are linked so that when they were in place the lack of a straight join could have fooled the viewer into believing that there was no join between them. The outlines of the arabesques are also much more carefully delineated than is normally found on tiles; there is a mathematical precision to the decoration, shown clearly in the central knotted motif on the lower tile.

A number of the same features are found on a mihrab tile in the David Collection, Copenhagen (Folsach, Kjeld v.: Islamic Art, The David Collection, Copenhagen, 1990, no.151, p.113). The main decoration is of white arabesques on a cobalt-blue ground, the outlines are formed of both full and dotted lines, and small areas forming panels within the design are coloured either black or turquoise. That mihrab is dated AH 712/1312 AD, giving a close idea of the date of the present tiles.

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