Panel of 96 glazed tiles, 78 square and 18 trimmed down to create a single framed composition, possibly fritware, with cuerda seca decoration depicting birds and flowering stems against yellow ground, from the (demolished) south gate of the Topmaidan in Tehran, Qajar Iran, 1800-1825.

Panel of 96 glazed tiles, possibly fritware, with cuerda seca decoration depicting birds and flowering stems against yellow ground, from the (demolished) south gate of the Topmaidan in Tehran, Qajar Iran, 1800-1825

"From the south gate of the Tope Maidan at Teheran, recently destroyed" (V&A acquisition register).
The museum bought this tile panel in late 1876, in a set of six very similar panels, all taken from Top-e Maidan square in Tehran: the square had just been extended and redeveloped, and the early 19th-century tile panels came from the recently-demolished perimeter. They are therefore an important example of public architecture from early Qajar (or possibly late Zand) Tehran.
The panels were sold to the South Kensington Museum (today the V&A) by a London-based firm, Pearson and Heath. The tiles had been brought from Iran, together with other examples of tiles, textiles and glass, by the firm's employee Caspar Purdon Clarke, who had worked in Iran for two years (1874-76), and would later come to work at the Museum. After the Museum purchased the six panels, they were re-assembled with some difficulty, and with 8 tiles left over. The result was six tile panels, which do not match perfectly, and a seventh set of loose tiles.

3-1877