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Not currently on display at the V&A

Tile

1800-1825
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Middle East, Tilework. Disassembled panel of 42 glazed tiles, fritware with cuerda seca decoration of flowers against yellow ground with blue borders, salvaged from the (demolished) south gate of the Topmaidan in Tehran, Qajar Iran, 1800-1825


Object details

Object type
Materials and techniques
Brief description
Middle East, Tilework. Tile from a panel of 42 glazed tiles, fritware with cuerda seca decoration of birds and flowers against yellow ground, with yellow scrollwork on blue borders, salvaged from the (demolished) south gate of the Topmaidan in Tehran, Qajar Iran, 1800-1825
Physical description
Middle East, Tilework. Disassembled panel of 42 glazed tiles, fritware with cuerda seca decoration of flowers against yellow ground with blue borders, salvaged from the (demolished) south gate of the Topmaidan in Tehran, Qajar Iran, 1800-1825
Style
Object history
"WALL TILES. Forty-two glazed tiles, painted with birds and flowers on yellow ground. 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 12 tiles left over. The result was six tile panels, which do not match perfectly, and a seventh set of loose tiles.
Association
Collection
Accession number
7-1877

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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