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A very rare pair of…
Sale Title:
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
19-Sep-2023
Lot No.
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Description:
A very rare pair of 'battlement' border tiles with reciprocal trefoil design. Ottoman-era Damascus, circa 1575. A wide variety of tiles are used in the decoration of Islamic architecture in all its forms. Traditions of tile-making throughout the Islamic world range from glazed brick decoration to cut-tile mosaics and brilliantly coloured glazed ceramic tiles that protected the exterior of some buildings and lavishly decorated the interiors of palaces, mosques and tombs. During Ottoman rule (1517–1918) of modern-day Syria, Damascus was situated a long distance from the imperial capital of Istanbul. As a regional centre of lively trade and artistic production, the ancient city developed its own style and taste in decoration. Typically tiles made in Ottoman Damascus were square or rectangular in shape, 2-3 centimetres thick, and made of a mixture of clay, quartz, and other materials, known as stonepaste. The moulded forms were painted with oxide pigments on a white base and then glazed and fired. The trefoil design seen in this pair is bold and skill-fully executed. It was most likely stencilled and uses the characteristic colour palette of sixteenth century Damascus tile production, i. e., cobalt blue, green (sometimes referred to as 'meadow green') and a dark, almost black, manganese as an outline colour. Trefoil motifs were used extensively throughout the Islamic world in a variety of media, appearing in clay or stone along the top of fortified walls, woven in the major and minor borders of oriental carpets through the centuries, painted and printed on tent screens and hangings in Mughal India, and rendered in ceramic form as seen here. Comparable tiles are seen in parts of the Sulaymaniyye Takkiya, a religious complex built in Damascus by the Ottoman sultan, Suleyman the Magnificent in 1566. Provenance: purchased in Istanbul in the early 1980's, thereafter in a private collection, Melbourne. Reference: Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles: Mamluk and Ottoman Architectural Ceramics from Syria, London: Prestel, 2015, pp. 132, 284–85, Fig. s 4.16, 6.95, 6.96. Dimensions: each 23 x 24 cm.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Architectural: Structural - Tiles