Middle East, Tilework. Spandrel arch, composed of 46 tiles, from an archway previously in a royal garden in Qajar Tehran, Iran, possibly 1800-1825.

One of two arch spandrels, reddish earthenware painted with white slip and coloured glazes, depicting birds in grapevines against a yellow ground, with blue and green borders.

"From an archway adjoining the Shah's garden at Teheran" (V&A acquisition register).
The museum bought this tile spandrel in late 1876, in a set of six very similar panels. The archway tiles are recorded as from the Shah's garden (possibly Gulistan Palace?), while the other panels are 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.

1A/10-1877