tile
Tile
ca. 1650 (made)
ca. 1650 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This Mughal tile is one of a group acquired from Mr. Frederick H. Andrews in 1923. He had been living in Srinagar and wrote to the museum in 1922 offering to sell his collection before he left that year to return to the UK. All were acquired in Kashmir, and were stated to have come from the 'tomb of Madani' in Srinagar. The tomb is actually that of Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Madani whose mosque, dated 1444, is next to it. The tiles themselves are later, produced in the reign of the emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58), for a ceremonial gateway to the tomb and mosque probably constructed in about 1640. The gateway was originally richly embellished with polychrome tiles. Details of what little remained in the early 20th century were recorded in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for 1908-1909. Their photographs show tiles set into the walls that are closely similar to the panel of eight tiles in the V&A to which this example belongs.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | tile (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Earthenware with a white slip ground and cuerda seca decoration |
| Brief description | Tile, kashmir or lahore, 17th century. |
| Physical description | A tile from a group of 7, plus one other similar one (IM.248-1923), which were part of a larger decorative panel. This tile resembles two others in the collection, but differs slightly in its colouring. The panel comprised an alternating pattern covering four tiles of similar baluster-shaped vases in orange with a decorative scrolling pattern in grey. Alternate different bunches of flowers rise out of these vases. The flowers include irises, roses, tulips among other types in manganese purple, orange, white and grey, all on a yellow ground. This particular tile has half a vase on the left hand side and half a spray of flowers to the right with purple roses and daisy-like flowers with orange tulips in between. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Object history | This tile is one of a group of 63 acquired from Mr. Frederick H. Andrews in 1923. He had been living in Srinagar, where he was Director of the Technical Institute of Kashmir, and wrote to the museum in 1922 offering to sell his collection before he left that year to return to the UK. All were acquired in Kashmir. These tiles are said to have come from the tomb of Madani near But Kadal, Srinagar, Kashmir. The building dates from the mid-fifteenth-century, but it was refurbished by a Mughal nobleman in the time of Shah Jahan. The tiles were probably made in Lahore. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | This Mughal tile is one of a group acquired from Mr. Frederick H. Andrews in 1923. He had been living in Srinagar and wrote to the museum in 1922 offering to sell his collection before he left that year to return to the UK. All were acquired in Kashmir, and were stated to have come from the 'tomb of Madani' in Srinagar. The tomb is actually that of Sayyid Muhammad Hussain Madani whose mosque, dated 1444, is next to it. The tiles themselves are later, produced in the reign of the emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58), for a ceremonial gateway to the tomb and mosque probably constructed in about 1640. The gateway was originally richly embellished with polychrome tiles. Details of what little remained in the early 20th century were recorded in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for 1908-1909. Their photographs show tiles set into the walls that are closely similar to the panel of eight tiles in the V&A to which this example belongs. |
| Bibliographic reference | Susan Stronge, ‘Tile Revetments in the Reign of Shah Jahan’, in Ebba Koch in collaboration with Ali Anooshahr, eds, The Mughal Empire from Jahangir to Shah Jahan. Art, Architecture, Politics, Law and Literature, Marg Publications, Mumbai 2019, pp 220. See Plate 17, p. 234. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | IM.244-1923 |
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| Record created | January 22, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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