View full screen - View 1 of Lot 136. A monumental Timurid calligraphic cuerda seca pottery tile, Khurasan, mid-15th century.

A monumental Timurid calligraphic cuerda seca pottery tile, Khurasan, mid-15th century

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

of rectangular form, decorated in blue, turquoise, brick-red and black outlined, with a section of thuluth in white against spiral stems and fragments of a Kufic inscription above

45 by 38 by 3cm.

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Ex-private collection, Asia, since 1970s

Ex-private collection, UK, since 1980s

Christie's London, 6 October 2011, lot 111


inscriptions

fragmentary, al-sharī’a wa  (possibly meant as ‘the law of God and’)


The treatment of the decoration is typical of cuerda seca tiles of this period. The design on the present tile, with large, white thuluth crowned by a smaller Kufic inscription in a darker colour on a spiral stem ground, appears to have been a favourite of the lauded Timurid architect Qawam al-Din Shirazi. Examples of this style can be found on a number of his buildings, including the shrine of Khwaja ‘Abdullah in Herat (completed in 1428), the Madrasa al-Ghiyathiya in Khargird (completed in 1444), and the Shaykh Zayn al-Din mausoleum in Taybad (completed in 1444-45). A similar tile was offered in these rooms, 12 October 2000, lot 132. 

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