Damascus Tiles

23

CAMEL WALL BRACKET

india (muGhal), 17th century

heiGht: 12.2 cm Width: 29.4 cm depth: 1.5 cm

A tempered steel wall bracket with the finial in the form of a camel’s head. The camel’s head faces forward and tilts slightly up with a smooth neck, which curves down to form a sinuous U-shape and then up into the horizontal spike tapering to a sharp point which would have secured it to the wall. The ears are alert and stand proud from the head of the camel. This bracket would probably have been used as a turban hook, as can be seen in various Malwa paintings of the period. This small though useful object offers an insight into the practicalities of life in seventeenth century India, but at the same time functions as a charming piece of ornamental sculpture. The strength and simplicity of form have a striking modernity.

Wall brackets, hooks and other hanging pegs in decorative and stylised animal forms are still visual on site in some Rajput forts and palaces, for example the

GARDEN PAVILION IN A LANDSCAPE

syria (damascus), late 16th/early 17th century

heiGht: 100 cm Width: 96 cm

An underglaze-painted tile panel, composed of sixteen tiles in vibrant hues of cobalt blue, turquoise, aubergine, apple green and black against a crisp white ground, depicting a garden pavilion within a landscape.

The centrally placed pavilion is the natural focal point of this impressive panel. Visually it draws the viewer in, as if inviting us to climb the cobalt blue semi-circular steps and walk through the grand opening ourselves. In addition, its form is so rarely if ever seen in Damascus tile designs that we are intrigued, pondering whether the pavilion actually existed or if it was just a romanticised creation from the minds of the tile-makers themselves. The building has an asymmetrical design, with an external balustrade framing the central doorway, decorated with aubergine spandrels and a central crescent. Placed within the entrance is an aubergine and white painted fountain, which has been drawn in a semi-successful attempt at perspective, with the suggestion that we are looking down slightly from above.

The vibrant apple green walls of the building are painted with thick brushstrokes and split into three sections by the four blue columns supporting the roof above. A grilled white window flanks the door to either side whilst above, further rectangular, round and arched openings are depicted, with either turquoise, white or cobalt centres. The tops of the cobalt columns are decorated with aubergine trefoil cartouches just below where they taper under the roof. We have to imagine what the design of the pavilion roof would have been, as sadly this row of tiles from the original panel is now missing from the composition.

Surrounding the grand pavilion are stylised floral sprays on a crackled white ground. Twisting apple green vines emerge from a pair of large leafy ferns to the bottom of the panel, from which grow cusped cobalt blue rosettes flanked by curling leaves. Further cusped split-leaf palmettes decorate the ground above the pavilion, whilst from the ferns below also emerge hyacinth and tulip sprays. The landscape scene is framed to all sides by a pattern of interlocking cobalt leaf motifs edged in white and contained within vibrant turquoise borders.

The subject matter presented here is unusual and suggests that it was possibly a unique commission for a wealthy client for their own private home. Whilst most tiles formed complex geometric and floral patterns in palaces and mosques, private individuals could also employ the artisan tile-makers to create panels with more personal designs. Stock tiles, although still a luxury, must have been much less expensive than special commissions, and with repeating patterns were more flexible, so they often covered entire walls, rather than defined panels as seen here.1 The enhanced status of Damascus as the Ottoman provincial capital created this new industry for the decoration of mosques, tombs, palaces and private residences.

For a large tile panel with vases and floral sprays, see Rémi Labrusse, Purs Décors, 2007, p.148. For a Damascus panel featuring a landscape scene, see Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2016, p. 227, fig. 5.13. This panel is still in situ in Leighton House, Kensington, London W8. Frederic Leighton is known to have purchased many of his tiles and panels directly from owners of Damascus houses. Lord Leighton mentions that impoverished inhabitants of Damascus would sell single tiles to travellers passing through, meaning that large panels such as ours got “hopelessly dispersed”.2 In 1884, the French traveller Louis Lortet wrote: “To this day similar, outstanding faience tiles are painted for the homes of the wealthy where they decorate the interior courtyards and selamliks (areas reserved for men).”3

Provenance: European Private Collection

References: 1. Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2016, p. 172. 2. Ibid., p. 218. 3. Ibid., p. 165.

25

SPLIT-LEAF PALMETTES AND COMPOSITE SPRAYS

syria (damascus), late 16th/early 17th century

heiGht: 40 cm Width: 40 cm

A symmetrical polychrome underglaze-painted square tile panel, composed of four identical tiles in hues of cobalt blue, apple green and black against a crisp white ground and depicting an interlacing framework of composite floral sprays and split-leaf palmettes surrounding a central stylised rosette all under a thick glaze.

The centre of each tile features a single stylised blue rosette with a white bud framed by a cusped apple green roundel and surrounded by cobalt trefoil petals. Flanking the rosette are four black composite lotus sprays, one to each side, the sprays containing a green crescent cartouche. Large cobalt split-leaf palmettes fill the remaining spaces, each with white and green cloudlike cartouches within. The tips of each palmette join together with one another to form a crossshaped cartouche within which the composite sprays and central rosette are contained. Further tendrils emerge from each palmette connecting the inner sprays, creating a cohesive symmetrical design. To the edges of each tile are further cobalt tendrils and half composite sprays in apple green, which form full flowers when the tiles are placed together, completing the design and visually connecting each tile to the other.

Identical tiles can be seen in situ in the mausoleum of Mohi al-Din Arabi in Salhiyya, Damascus, and are briefly discussed in Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2015, p. 171. For an almost identical tile in a similar palette, see Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2015, p. 275, fig. 6.7 and also in situ at the Victoria and Albert Museum, accession nos. 660-1893 and 506 to B-1900.

26

VINES AND FLORAL SPRAYS

syria (damascus), early 17th century

heiGht: 27.2 cm Width: 26.5 cm

An underglaze-painted tile in vivid shades of cobalt blue, turquoise, black and sage green against a crisp white ground, with a design of stylised floral sprays and large vines beneath a thick, crackled transparent glaze.

A large serrated composite floral spray dominates the ground, painted in cobalt blue with white trefoil cartouches surrounding a central tulip spray within. Framing the composite flower to either side are thick curving vines painted in a vibrant turquoise hue and decorated with white spots. The vines are in two pairs, each pair fastened together by a cusped cobalt crown or “Italian clasp”. Singular serrated sage green leaves and stylised rosettes decorate the remaining crackled ground, emerging from differing points along the vine.

Part of a much bigger panel, this tile would have been connected to further identical examples to create vertical waves of large vines and stylised floral sprays. These can be seen in situ in the prayer hall of the Darwishiyya Mosque in Damascus, published in Gérard Degeorge and Yves Porter, The Art of the Islamic Tile, 2001, p. 216. For similar examples see Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2015, p. 144, fig. 4.31, p. 265, fig. 6.51; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, gallery 460; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, number 520F-1900.

In the sixteenth century, Damascus became an important Ottoman provincial capital giving rise to new building schemes faced with tile-work. The designs echo Iznik patterns of the same period but are more spontaneous and exuberant, using a slightly different palette, with more emphasis on turquoise and cobalt hues in combination with sage green and aubergine. The vine motif seen here was popular in pre-Islamic antiquity, appearing on Chinese blue and white porcelain for the Islamic market, though the design in Damascus ceramics seems to have come through Iznik imitations.1 The shiny, glassy glaze with a fine crackle seen on this tile is characteristic of Damascus wares.

Provenance: Mellors & Kirk, 8 June 2021, lot 897.

Acquired by Algernon or Herbert Turnor of Lincolnshire at the beginning of the 20th century and mounted in a George V silver table frame. The silver table frame was hallmarked London 1910 and it appeared in the same sale as lot 731.

Reference: 1. Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, 2015, p. 138.