Tile thumbnail 1
Tile thumbnail 2
Not currently on display at the V&A

Tile

1887-1888
Artist/Maker
Place of origin



In the late 19th century in Iran, Qajar artists began to imitate the art of the Safavid period. In ceramics, Qajar potters, such as Ali Muhammad Isfahani, copied the colourful, monumental seventeenth-century tile panels that decorated palaces in Isfahan. There was also a fashion for elaborate tile panels of complex construction, consisting of interlocking shapes, such as stars or hexagons, within cornice borders, of which these tiles are apart.


Object details

Object type
Materials and techniques
Fritware, underglaze painted in polychrome
Brief description
Border tile, fritware, moulded with a cornice and underglaze painted in polychrome with foliate design and bowls of flowers; Tehran, Iran, 1887-1888.
Physical description
One of three border tiles, fritware, each moulded with a projecting cornice, and painted in blue, green, pink, yellow and black under the glaze with a design of alternating panels of split palmettes and bowls of flowers including roses and foliate stems over a low relief-moulded design. A narrow border of interlaced foliate scroll and continuos dots frame the design.
Dimensions
  • Length: 10.6cm
  • Width: 40.5cm
  • Height: 10.6cm (frame)
  • Length: 77.4cm (frame)
  • Depth: 6cm (frame)
Marks and inscriptions
Transliteration
.
Object history
Purportedly given by Ali Muhammad Isfahani
Summary


In the late 19th century in Iran, Qajar artists began to imitate the art of the Safavid period. In ceramics, Qajar potters, such as Ali Muhammad Isfahani, copied the colourful, monumental seventeenth-century tile panels that decorated palaces in Isfahan. There was also a fashion for elaborate tile panels of complex construction, consisting of interlocking shapes, such as stars or hexagons, within cornice borders, of which these tiles are apart.
Bibliographic reference
Jennifer M. Scarce, 'Ali Mohammed Isfahani, Tilemaker of Tehran,' Oriental Art N.S. 22 (Autumn 1976), 278-88 (table 1, no. 2).
Collection
Accession number
568-1888

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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