Four Timurid cuerda seca muqarnas pottery Tiles Central Asia probably Samarkand late 14th Century(4)
£8,000 - £12,000
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Find your local specialistFour Timurid cuerda seca muqarnas pottery Tiles
Central Asia probably Samarkand late 14th Century
Central Asia probably Samarkand late 14th Century
the largest 33 x 23.5 cm.(4)
Footnotes
These muqarnas tiles are decorated in an unusual technique that maybe regarded as an early form of cuerda seca, which developed in the second half of the 14th Century, whereby the colours are separated from each other to prevent running by an oily substance mixed with manganese, which leaves a deep recessed outline after firing. In the present lot, the colours are held apart by incised outlines to the forms, the glazes thickly applied in unctuous layers of rich, gleaming colour separated by the grooves rather than the manganese.
Muqarnas refers to corbels covered in "stalactites", especially in vaulted areas of archways of cupolas. This device became widespread in the 12th Century throughout most of the Islamic world and is one of the most characteristic features of Islamic architecture.
Other muqarnas tiles of this same period are can be seen on the Mausoleum of Shad-e Mulk Aqa in the necropolis if Shah-e Zende, Samarkand, constructed for Tamerlane's niece (d. 1371) and completed in AD 1383 (Jean Soustiel and Yves Porter, Tombs of Paradise, Saint-Remy-en-L'Eau, 2003, p. 89).