Glazed earthenware, Mughal, c. 1650

This tile with chipped edges is part of a larger decorative panel. Its ground is partly in a deep cobalt blue with the other portion in a paler blue. A narrow white stem with flowers and leaves scrolls over the two blue grounds over which there is part of a broad yellow interlaced arabesque which encloses a fine blue stem with blue and green flowers. This tile is similar in its pattern but not exactly the same as IM.251-1923.

This tile is one of a group 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.

This Mughal glazed earthenware tile is one of a group acquired in 1923 from Mr Frederick H. Andrews. He had been living in Srinagar as 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 was refurbished by a Mughal nobleman in the reign of Shah Jahan (1628-58).

IM.252-1923