.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A similar Timurid tombstone dated AH 891⁄1486 AD, only six years earlier than our example, is in the Art Institute Chicago (1916.145). It is decorated with lines of loose naskh in lustre with cobalt-blue highlights. Another related tile is in the Musée de Sèvres, Paris, dated AH 886 (MNC19335). Our tile also relates to a series associated with a building commissioned by Abu Sa’id (1424-69), the great-grandson of Timur. One of these is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (30.95.26) and another in the Keir Collection (Ernst Grube, Islamic Pottery, London, 1976, pp.298-9). They are all signed by Nusrat al-Din Muhammad and dated AH 860⁄1455-6 AD. Another related tile survives in situ in Kashan, recording the donation of some carpets to the shrine of Shah Yalman in the Kashan bazaar. This latter example is signed by Qutb al-Din al Husayni (Oliver Watson, Persian Lustre Ware, London, 1985, pls.131-3, pp.160-2).
Oliver Watson talks of these inscription tiles and tombstones from Kashan (dated from 1418 to 1560) as evidence of the link between the Ilkhanid wares and the Safavid production of the 17th century (Watson, op.cit., p.157). He comments that the use of this costly and elaborate lustre technique for tiles in a religious and funerary context corresponds to the function of lustre tiles in the Ilkhanid period, surmising that perhaps it was that association which preserved the technique.
A fragment of a later tile from the same group and dated AH 905/January 1500 AD sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2004, lot 24. A similar complete tile was sold in these Rooms as part of the Dr. Arthur M. Sackler collection, 18 October 1994, lot 315.
Oliver Watson talks of these inscription tiles and tombstones from Kashan (dated from 1418 to 1560) as evidence of the link between the Ilkhanid wares and the Safavid production of the 17th century (Watson, op.cit., p.157). He comments that the use of this costly and elaborate lustre technique for tiles in a religious and funerary context corresponds to the function of lustre tiles in the Ilkhanid period, surmising that perhaps it was that association which preserved the technique.
A fragment of a later tile from the same group and dated AH 905/January 1500 AD sold in these Rooms, 27 April 2004, lot 24. A similar complete tile was sold in these Rooms as part of the Dr. Arthur M. Sackler collection, 18 October 1994, lot 315.