Fragment from a dish, earthenware, sgraffitto ware, with rondels on fish-scale ground; Iran, 12th century.

Fragment, buff-coloured earthenware, covered in slip, finely carved with a large roundel with four palmettes, on a ground of dense fish-scale pattern above a band of dotted quatrefoils, and covered with a clear-yellowish glaze. The effect presumably imitates precious metal ware.

According to the Museum Registers this fragment, 'Bought (Myers Colln.)', was 'From the ruins of Rhé (Rhages).'

In his will, the British collector Major William Joseph Myers(1858-1899) stipulated that his collections of 'Arab' glass and wall tiles be offered to the Victoria and Albert Museum for £3000 and £1000 respectively. Myers died in October 1899, and on 3 January 1900, his executor wrote to the Museum making the offer he had stipulated. A valuation process then followed, and on 24 January Frederick Ducane Godman and George Salting, as advisers to the museum, signed a letter to the Director firmly recommending purchase. The objects were then delivered to the V&A, where they were divided in three parts. Two parts, listed in separate inventories dated 23 May 1900, were sent to the South Kensington Museum’s sister institutions in Edinburgh and Dublin. The third and largest part remained at the Museum. Invoices for the glass and tiles were paid on 5 June 1900, at £2253.15s.0d for the glass and £829.15s.0d for the tiles.

713-1900