TWO DAMASCUS POTTERY TILES

SYRIA, CIRCA 1430

Details
TWO DAMASCUS POTTERY TILES
SYRIA, CIRCA 1430
Each from the edge of a panel of hexagonal tiles, the white ground of one painted in cobalt-blue and black with a central stylised two-handled vase flanked by scrolling leafy motifs, in a plain turquoise border, the other with a six-pointed star design similarly executed within a blue border
Each 7in. (17.7cm.) across (2)
Provenance
Col. Lockwood de Forest, collected in Damascus in the 1880s.

Lot Essay

In an article on six hexagonal tiles in New York, John Carswell undertakes a detailed analysis of the known groups of blue and white hexagonal tiles (Carswell, J.: 'Six Tiles', in Ettinghausen, R. (ed.): Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972, pp.99-124). The present tiles are identical in size and closely related in decoration to a group which were made for a tomb and mosque in Damascus built as a monument after the death of Ghars al-Din al-Khalil al-Tawrizi, the vizier of Damascus who died in 1430. Four other versions of similar ewers are to be found there, including at least one with turquoise plain borders. Another very similar tile with a black ewer is in the British Museum (Porter, V.: Islamic Tiles, London, 1995, pl.86, p.97).

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