Tag Archive | Syrian tile

Mystery tile revisited: Iznik?

Aug11

I’ve done some poking about since I last wrote about my mystery tile. (Click on all photos to enlarge).

The mystery tile.

The mystery tile.

I had discounted it being Iznik as most Iznik decorative floral motifs I had seen were flowing and sinuous, rather than angular and geometric, as in my tile.

However, a late-night spot of google-fu brought me to the official blog of the Glessner House Museum in Chicago. In the mid 1880s Iznik tiles which date from the mid-16th century were used to decorate the fireplace of the newly built Glessner House. The photos on the Glessner House website are very similar to my tile:

Iznik tile from the Glessner House

Iznik tile illustrated on the Glessner House blog. Pretty good match, no?

However, it is not clear from the blog whether this is one of the 1970s reproductions that is mentioned, or one of the three original tiles that survive from the Glessner House collection. (Update: this very tile is for sale at Anthony Slayter-Ralph Fine Art, Tile 70 of the Lockwood de Forest II collection, 21.6 x 19 cm (8.5 x 7.5 in.), so I am not sure how accurate the Glessner House information is. The sale description says it can be compared to two tiles in the V&A, accession no. 1227-1883, but sadly there are no photos with the V&A’s collections database entry for these tiles).

This tile differs from my tile in that the interior of the flower spike is painted to delineate the fish scale-like sections, whereas mine has a bumpy, textured interior and the sections are more circular. The Glessner ones are said to be some 6 inches square (although the one above is 8.5 x 7.5 inches), whereas mine is a tad over 8 inches square. Plus my underglaze background colour is a blueish white, whereas the Glessner House ones are a cleaner, crisper white.

Iznik tiles in the dining room fireplace in the Glessner House, before their removal in the 1930s.

Iznik tiles in the dining room fireplace in the Glessner House, before their removal in the 1930s.

The Glessner House blog provided a photo of similar tiles in the tomb of Muhi al-Din Ibn ‘Arabi in the Sheikh Muhiddin Mosque in Damascus. Another quick google told me that he was properly known as (deep breath) ‘Abū ‘Abdillāh Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Arabī (also as Muhiddin(e) ibn Arabi), an Arab-Andalusian Sufi mystic, poet and philosopher who died in 1240 AD, and was buried in Damascus. Centuries later his tomb was decorated with these vivid Iznik tiles. They too have the painted fish scale-like interior divisions of the flower spikes.

Iznik tiles in the tomb of 'Abū 'Abdillāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn `Arabī in Damascus.

Iznik tiles in the tomb of ‘Abū ‘Abdillāh Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Arabī in Damascus. These have the painted fish scale divisions within the flower spikes.

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Ibn Arabi’s tomb, Damascus, Syria. Photo from http://hakkani.wordpress.com/2011/04/30/sheikh-ibn-arabis-tomb-jabal-qasyoon-syria/

So the question is, is mine Iznik too? Is it genuine Iznik, older than the ones at Damascus? Is it genuine Iznik, younger than the ones at Damascus? Was it made by another pottery centre, apeing the Iznik style? Is it a modern reproduction? I don’t think it is the latter as it simply looks and feels too old: it was made in a fairly crude way, the glaze is very crackled and crazed with age, and it has had a life with all its breaks and stains. But I could very easily be wrong.

Time for some more research ….

UDATE: More developments here.

A mystery tile

Jul27

Even though our cottage and garden are both pretty small, all in all we have eight neighbours with whom we share a boundary—but the reason for that is for another day’s post (hint: medieval burgages and later coaching inns). There is a low stone wall between us and one of our neighbours’ houses.

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The mystery tile. The old breaks are a dirty dark grey; the modern ones bright greyish white.  I don’t think it’s Iznik – Indian, maybe?

One day, many years ago, I noticed a lovely old tile sitting on top of the wall—one edge was broken and missing, and the glaze was dinked in a couple of places, but generally it wasn’t in too bad condition. What really grabbed me about it were the colours, turquoises and cobalt blues, and they reminded me of the colours of the Iznik tiles I had seen on the walls in the various ancient mosques I had visited in the Middle East. I didn’t think much more about it. Our neighbour’s kids used to play on the wall and I assumed they had put it there. The next time I saw it was about a year later. It had fallen to the ground on our side of the garden and had broken into about six pieces. I mentioned it to our neighbour and she said ‘Oh that old thing, I don’t want it, chuck it away.’

Angled view from the front, showing the bumpy textured section of the central flower.

Angled view from the front, showing the bumpy textured section of the central flower spike.

Well, being a lover of old things and an inveterate hoarder, I could do no such thing. I gathered up all the fragments I could find, washed them, and stuck them back together with HMG glue (beloved of archaeological finds officers across the nation). A few pieces were missing and despite a thorough search I never found them.

I would love to know more about the tile. It measures about 220 mm (8 3/4 inches) square and about 16 mm (7/10 inch) thick, with slightly bevelled edges. The clay from which it is made is a greyish white in colour. There are fingerprints on the backside—you can run your four fingers down where the tile maker smoothed out the clay into the mould. The glaze is very glassy/vitreous. I don’t think it is an Iznik tile as all the ones I have seen have flowing, curving, sinuous plants and foliage, whereas the ones on this tile are quite geometric and angular. I wonder if it might be Indian?

The back of the tile, with the four parallel finger marks running horizontally across from the bottom right corner.

The back of the tile, with the four parallel finger marks running horizontally across from the bottom right corner, from when the maker was smearing and pressing down the clay into the square mould. The darker grey circular marks (there would originally have been nine of them) are presumably something to do with the loading of the tiles in the kiln for firing. Anyhow—if anyone has any ideas about the identification of this tile, I’d love to know.