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Lot Essay
This tabouret forms a part of a group of six-sided ceramic objects produced in workshops in Ayyubid Syria, probably in Raqqa. They probably functioned as tabourets, low tables for supporting food and drink and probably fine vessels. This is attested by the widespread depictions of similar tabourets in contemporaneous book painting.
Similar tabourets were also produced in Iran. However, despite not being completely uniform, the Raqqa group consists of moulded pieces of light, sand-coloured fritware, joined together at the edges, leaving the interior hollow, and glazed with a thick turquoise or green. Larger than the Iranian examples, most of the group measure between 30 and 40cm. in height, making ours, at 44cm. one of the largest (for a further discussion, see Margaret Graves, ‘The aesthetics of simulation: architectural mimicry on medieval ceramic tabourets,’ Margaret Graves (ed.), Islamic Art, Architecture and Material Culture: New Perspectives, Oxford, 2012, pp.63-79).
Other tabourets of this group include the ones in the David Collection (21⁄1982, Isl 207), the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC (1911.1, 1911.2), the Museum for Islamic Art, State Museums of Berlin (I. 537, I. 4113), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.2002.1.18) (for these and other examples, see Graves, op.cit. figs.1-4, 9-10, 15-16). Further examples are in the Gluck Collection (Jay Gluck, The World of Persian Pottery, Tokyo, 1980, pl.282), in a private collection (Arthur Lane, Early Islamic Poetry, London, cat.45b), and in the Museum of Islamic Ceramics in Cairo (255).
Similar tabourets were also produced in Iran. However, despite not being completely uniform, the Raqqa group consists of moulded pieces of light, sand-coloured fritware, joined together at the edges, leaving the interior hollow, and glazed with a thick turquoise or green. Larger than the Iranian examples, most of the group measure between 30 and 40cm. in height, making ours, at 44cm. one of the largest (for a further discussion, see Margaret Graves, ‘The aesthetics of simulation: architectural mimicry on medieval ceramic tabourets,’ Margaret Graves (ed.), Islamic Art, Architecture and Material Culture: New Perspectives, Oxford, 2012, pp.63-79).
Other tabourets of this group include the ones in the David Collection (21⁄1982, Isl 207), the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC (1911.1, 1911.2), the Museum for Islamic Art, State Museums of Berlin (I. 537, I. 4113), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.2002.1.18) (for these and other examples, see Graves, op.cit. figs.1-4, 9-10, 15-16). Further examples are in the Gluck Collection (Jay Gluck, The World of Persian Pottery, Tokyo, 1980, pl.282), in a private collection (Arthur Lane, Early Islamic Poetry, London, cat.45b), and in the Museum of Islamic Ceramics in Cairo (255).