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Country of Origin: Isfahan
Persia
JBOC Comments: Please see The
Sheikh Abdolsamad Mosque in Natanz Iran.
Auction Catalogue Description:
EGYPTIAN, CLASSICAL, AND WESTERN
ASIATIC ANTIQUITIES AND ISLAMIC WORKS OF ART
SALE N07812 LOT 21
SESSION 1 | 13 Jun 02 10:15 AM.
New York
Property from a California Private Collection
AN ILKHANID LUSTER-PAINTED TILE, NATANZ,
DEDICATED MARCH-APRIL 1308,
30,000—40,000 USD
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:
32,862 USD
MEASUREMENTS
14 1/2 by 14 3/16in. 36.8 by 36cm.
DESCRIPTION
molded in relief and painted in cobalt-blue and
brown luster with inscriptions against an
intricate white-reserved ground of birds among
scrolling lotus flowers and other blossoms,
stylized Kufic in the lower border, the upper
border decorated with alternating plants and two
pairs of addorsed birds.
From the
shrine of Abd al-Samad at Natanz, Iran
PROVENANCE
acquired prior to 1940 by the present owner's
grandparents, probably in France or England
The Arabic word for
"ginger"(zanjabiil)inscribed on the
tile is the last word of Sura 76, verse17, in
which the Quran describes the delights of
paradise: "And they shall be made to drink
therein a cup the admixture of which shall be
ginger."
The present tile is part of a larger frieze of
which about twenty other tiles are known, in both
private and public collections around the world.
Among them is one in The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, which gives the dedication date (gift of
Emile Rey, 1912; most recently published by
Stefano Carboni and Tomoko Masuya, Persian Tiles,
New York, 1993, p. 20, no. 25), and one in the
Victoria and Albert Museum (see Sheila Blair and
Jonathan M. Bloom, The Art and Architecture of
Islam, 1250-1800, New Haven, 1994, p. 11, fig.
10).
The frieze originally decorated the tomb of the
sufi shaykh Abd
al-Samad at Natanz, built by the vizier
Zaynal-Din and completed in the spring of 1308.
Part of a larger religious complex, "the
tomb is a chamber approximately six meter square
erected on the site of Abdal-Samad's residence
across a lane from the mosque. As at Bastan the
shape is traditional, but the interior is
decorated with the finest fittings Zayn al-Din
could procure. The walls were all revetted with a
(...) dado of luster tiles (...) often
recognizable by a frieze of paired birds whose
heads were later defaced by some zealous
iconoclast (S. Blair - J. Bloom, op. cit.,p. 10;
see also the more detailed study by Sheila Blair,
The Ilkhanid Shrine Complex at Natanz, Iran,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1986, pp. 50, 64, and
pl.53)." The inscription on the frieze may
have run above six rows of star and cross tiles.
For tiles from a closely related frieze
cf.Sotheby's, New York, December 2nd, 1988, no.
198, and Sotheby's, London, October 18th, 2001,
no. 96.
Seen on www.Sothebys.com
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