CENTRAL IRAN, CIRCA 1307-08

The size and decoration of the present lot, with an upper register including a number of paired birds, relates precisely to the tiles from the calligraphic frieze on the shrine of Shaykh 'Abd al-Samad in Natanz. Tiles from that frieze are now in the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hermitage Museum, the Louvre and the Hetjens Museum in Dusseldorf, among others (for a full list, see Richard Piran McClary, "Recontextualising the Object: using New Technologies to Reconstruct Lost Interiors of Medieval Islamic Buildings', International Journal of Islamic Architecture, volume 7, issue 2, 2018 pp.263-283). The tile in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is dated AH 707 / 1307-08 AD (acc.no. 12.44).

The tiles known to have come from the Natanz shrine have generally been defaced, with the faces of the birds in the upper register having been deliberately chipped away. The fact that the birds in our frieze are intact is therefore particularly interesting. Knowing that this tile was excavated in Kashan, it suggests that tiles of this type may have not only been made for Natanz, but also elsewhere. Alternatively, perhaps this was intended for Natanz but rejected for some reason and remained in Kashan, where these tiles are likely ot have been manufactured.