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Country of Origin: Ottoman
Empire
JBOC Comments:
Auction Catalogue Description:
Arts of the Islamic World
SALE L04220 LOT 87
SESSION 1 | 28 Apr 04 10:30 AM.
London, New Bond Street
A DATED KASHAN LUSTRE-DECORATED STAR TILE,
CENTRAL PERSIA, DATED A.H. 678 / A.D. 1279-80
3,000—5,000 GBP
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:
5,760 GBP
MEASUREMENTS
measurements note
20.7cm.
DESCRIPTION
of eight-pointed stellar form, decorated in
lustre over an opacified tin glaze with inglaze
cobalt blue and turquoise, with a central spray
of large trilobed leaves with a fish pond below
and a bird flying overhead, flanked by a pair of
spotted felines facing outwards, the dense ground
of floral and foliate sprays enclosed by a border
of cursive calligraphy
CATALOGUE NOTE
The inscription contains two quatrains in Persian
and the date A.H. 678 / A.D. 1279-80:
fi shuhur sana thamana wa sab'in wa sittami'a
[during the course of the year six hundred and
seventy eight]
The 1270s was a productive decade for the lustre
tilemakers of Iran. The Ilkhanid ruler, Abaqa
Khan, commissioned a major new cycle of tilework
for his summer palace at Takht-Sulaiman and other
dated star tiles from the 1270s indicate an
upward curve in the fortunes of the tilework
industry.
This tile is related in dimension and design to
an earlier group from the late 1260s thought to
have decorated the Imamzadeh Ja'far at Damghan.
Examples of these showing very similar addorsed
quadrupeds with a surrounding calligraphic band
in naskhi script are in the British Museum
(Porter 1995, p.36, no.21) and the Louvre; some
are dated 664-665 A.H. / A.D. 1266-7 (Watson
1985, p.133, no.110). The Imamzadeh Ja'far star
tiles provided models for many of the star tiles
of the 1270s: the basic compositional elements -
spotted animals, reserve grounds and nashki
borders - right down to the standard measurement
which suggests reuse of the same moulds.
Seen on www.Sotheby's.com
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