OTTOMAN SYRIA, LATE 16TH CENTURY/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Following the conquest of Damascus by the Ottomans in 1516, a raft of architectural projects were undertaken employing polychrome tile decoration. The second half of the 16th century saw a dispersal of potters to various parts of Syria and the tiles of this period strongly relate to those being contemporaneously produced at the potteries in Iznik whilst still retaining a sense of the city’s pre-Ottoman Mamluk past. For further information on Damascus ceramics see Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles: Mamluk and Ottoman Architectural Ceramics from Syria, London, 2015.

A full group of Damascus tiles originally adorning a pointed arch and dating to 1590 are held in the National Museum of Damascus (168ع ر) and a very similar calligraphic tile is in the British Museum (inv. 1895, 9693.126) . A similarly dated pair of calligraphic Damascus tiles were sold in these Rooms, 26 April 2018, lot 164.