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 cuerda seca decoration |
| Brief description | Tile |
| Physical description | One of a group of tiles with vases and sprays of flowers, (see IM. 244, 245 and 246-1923 and CIRC.1284 -1923 and CIRC.1290-1923) but this tile differs from the others in the group. It differs in its detailing and the painting appears less assured, which possibly points to it being a replacement tile made as a restoration. It shows a half baluster-shaped vase on the left hand side with a scrolling arabesque pattern highlighted in white with touches of blue. The green leaves rising out of it are serrated. The other side of the tile has a yellow ground on which a spray of flowers rises out of an orange dish. The spray contains orange tulips, grey daisy-like flowers with highlights of blue and white and poppies with orange and blue petals. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Object history | This tile is one of a group of 63 acquired in 1923 from Mr Frederick H. Andrews. He had been living in Srinagar where he had been 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. The tiles are said to have come from the tomb of Madani near But Kadal in Srinagar, Kashmir. The building dates from the mid-fifteenth century, but it was refurbished by a Mughal nobleman in Shah Jahan’s time. 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 220-245. See plate 17, p. 234. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | IM.248-1923 |
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| Record created | January 22, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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