Tile
1250-1350 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This unusually large and complex tile from an architectural frieze has three bands of inscriptions in two different styles. The middle band is upside down, and the words in this inscription and the one below have been deliberately spaced so that the bold vertical letters coincide and can be joined by symmetrical knots
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Moulded fritware with colour in and lustre over the glaze |
| Brief description | Lustre-painted tile with inscriptions including two whose verticals are connected, Iran, 1250-1350. |
| Physical description | Large ceramic tile with bidirectional calligraphy and lustre. The lustred background of the tile is deeply patterned with small dots, over which is an intertwined foliate design in light blue. The script, in cobalt blue over the background is interlaced in the centre of the panel and is described at both top and bottom of the tile. There is further calligraphy placed horizontally at the top of the tile, also in cobalt blue. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Note The inscription of the upper border of the tile is Quran, surah LXXVI, the end of the 3rd verse and beginning of the 4th verse. This verse follows on from the inscription on the tile in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (UCAD 7642). The main inscription on the V&A tile is Quran, surah II, verse 255 running along the lower part of the tile; and verse 257 upside down along the top of the tile. This information was provided by Delphine Miroudot of the Islamic Arts Dept at the Louvre. |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Salting Bequest |
| Object history | A note in the register says: "Shown at the exhibition of Faience of Persia and the Near East at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1907 (catalogue p.27). Another tile from the same frieze was sold at the Spitzer sale in Paris in 1893 for 5400 francs". This second tile is now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (inv. no. UCAD 7642). See R. Koechlin, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, L'Art de l'Islam, la Céramique, 1928, pl. 4, no. 21. |
| Summary | This unusually large and complex tile from an architectural frieze has three bands of inscriptions in two different styles. The middle band is upside down, and the words in this inscription and the one below have been deliberately spaced so that the bold vertical letters coincide and can be joined by symmetrical knots |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.1976-1910 |
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| Record created | June 30, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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