Enrica Medugno
Sale Coordinator
Lot 34
A Timurid moulded pottery tile Central Asia, 14th Century
14 November 2023, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£4,000 - £6,000
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Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
A Timurid moulded pottery tile
Central Asia, 14th Century
Central Asia, 14th Century
of rectangular form, the surface deeply carved with two eight-pointed stars, to each a central turquoise glazed roundel with an unglazed surrounding band of knotwork, turquoise glazed split palmette motifs to the interstice
33.5 x 21.5 cm.
33.5 x 21.5 cm.
Footnotes
Provenance
Private UK collection formed in the 1950s and 60s.
Published
Arts from the Land of Timur, Sogdiana Books, 2012, no. 347, p. 167.
One of the predominant techniques of the Timurid period is deeply carved terracotta using turquoise as the principal glaze within a strict geometric framework, as seen on the current lot. This technique can be seen in the facade of the mausoleum of Shad-i Mulk Agha in the Shah-i Zinda complex in Samarkand. It appears to have only been used in the 14th Century and predates Timur's conquest of Samarkand in 1370 (Venetia Porter, Islamic Tiles, London, 1995, p. 70-72, fig. 67). A fragment of a tile with a similar terracotta and turquoise-glazed eight-pointed star design is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Accession Number 648-1900). The Victoria and Albert example, previously in the Myers Collection, comes "from the Medreseh of the Shah Zindeh," the famous necropolis complex in Samarkand, and is dated to the second half of the 14th Century.