Architecture, ceramic, glazed, probably Lahore, ca. 1650

Glazed earthenware tile from a decorative floral panel with a pattern of cartouches in alternate orange and yellow and outline with a blue line which is knotted at various angles and interstices. The yellow ground cartouche of this tile has a design of a flowering iris plant with orange, blue and purple petals which have pink edges where the body of the earthenware has been left unpainted. Portions of the adjacent orange cartouches surround the yellow one and show a flower with yellow petals and a green centre in the upper right hand corner which is badly chipped and damaged.

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.

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.285-1923