Not currently on display at the V&A

Tehran Tilework

Tile
1800-1850 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Tile panel incomplete (six tiles in two parts), fritware mixed with coarse buff- coloured clay, comprising four square tiles and two rectangular tiles, covered with tin-opacified white slip and polychrome painted. The elaborate design imitates Qajar enamelwork on gold. The design is complex and carefully ordered consisting of a series of pictorial and floral themes vertically aligned from top to bottom:-

This rectangular tile depicts a partial winged semi-nude female figure holding a bowl of flowers, above a section of an escalloped oblong cartouche with a turquoise ground with spiraling tendrils in black. The golden yellow ground is strewn with stylized flowers. Along the right side is a narrow border pattern with a continuous repeat of medallions of European buildings alternating with flowerheads, against a deep blue ground.

Mounted on a wood frame with three other tiles in an ebonized wood and gold lined frame.




Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleTehran Tilework
Materials and techniques
Fritware mixed with coarse buff-coloured clay, tin-opacified white slip and polychrome painted.
Brief description
Middle East, Ceramic, Tile; Tile, glazed earthenware, with vertical design of an angel holding roses, against yellow background, and side border vignettes of urban landscapes and flowers, mounted in a set of three, but part of a larger panel composition, Tehran or Shiraz, Iran, 1800-1850
Physical description
Tile panel incomplete (six tiles in two parts), fritware mixed with coarse buff- coloured clay, comprising four square tiles and two rectangular tiles, covered with tin-opacified white slip and polychrome painted. The elaborate design imitates Qajar enamelwork on gold. The design is complex and carefully ordered consisting of a series of pictorial and floral themes vertically aligned from top to bottom:-

This rectangular tile depicts a partial winged semi-nude female figure holding a bowl of flowers, above a section of an escalloped oblong cartouche with a turquoise ground with spiraling tendrils in black. The golden yellow ground is strewn with stylized flowers. Along the right side is a narrow border pattern with a continuous repeat of medallions of European buildings alternating with flowerheads, against a deep blue ground.

Mounted on a wood frame with three other tiles in an ebonized wood and gold lined frame.


Dimensions
  • Height: 23.3cm
  • Width: 13.2cm
Total overall single wooden panel dimension is L 46.5 cm; W 36 cm; D 1.5 cm
Style
Object history
This colourful tile was bought for the South Kensington Museum (today the V&A) in Tehran in 1875, as part of a set of nine. The set was sold by Jean-Baptiste Nicolas, a French diplomat who had been stationed in Iran since 1840, and had built up an extensive survey collection of Iranian tiles. He sold a large consignment to the Museum's agent, Robert Murdoch Smith, ranging from 14th-century lustreware to these early 19th-century tiles, which he dated to the reign of Fath `Ali Shah (d.1834).
Collection
Accession number
1495:3-1876

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Record createdJuly 19, 2013
Record URL
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