Page 41 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

VARIOUS PROPERTIES
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A CARVED POTTERY TILE FRAGMENT
TIMURID SAMARKAND, CENTRAL ASIA, 14TH CENTURY This tile once formed part of a larger decorative scheme on the façade
of a building. The fragmentary calligraphic inscription along the bottom
The cobalt-blue ground deeply carved with scrolling arabesques around a
strong inscription in white, losses to the glaze, on stand would have most probably been part of a Qur'anic verse. Similar examples
11Ω x 10¬in. (29.3 x 27cm.) are seen at the extremities of the epigraphic bands of the mausoleum
of “an anonymous woman” in Samarkand, dating to 1360 and inside the
£20,000-30,000 US$29,000-42,000
funerary chamber. They also adorn the facade of two further mausoleums
€24,000-35,000
in Samarkand, that of Amir Hoseyn ibn Qara Qutlugh, 1376 and also Shad-e
PROVENANCE: Mulk Aqa, dated post 1371 (see Jean Soustiel and Yves Porter, Tombs of
Private UK Collection formed in the 1950s Paradise, Saint-Remy-en-L'Eau 2003, p. 83, pp.89-91, and p. 106).
Bonhams London, 23 April 2013, lot 47
LITERATURE:
Arts from the Land of Timur, exhibition catalogue, Sogdiana Books, 2012, no.
444

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