Tile panel, glazed grey fritware, Iznik, 1560-1590
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1560-90
In the Middle East, tilework was originally developed as a decorative cladding for brick structures. After 1400 its use spread to Turkey, where tiles were applied to stone buildings using mortar. The most accomplished type had colourful designs painted on a brilliant white ground. Tiles from the Turkish city of Iznik soon became very popular.
They were even applied to wooden structures such as royal barges where mortar could not be used. A hole was bored through the centre of each tile, which was held in place by a pin with a decorative head. Panel of four tiles of glazed grey fritware, painted in colours on a white slip. A T-shaped panel, forming part of a spandrel of a niche, painted in red, green and blue outlined in olive-green. A wide band along the top and one of the lower corners are decorated with large conventional flowers on foliated stems interlaced with Chinese cloud ornament on a blue ground. The remainder is filled with scrolled arabesques on a turquoise-blue ground.
Bought from the Myers Collection.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 3
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Physical characteristics
- Material
- Fritware, polychrome underglaze painted, glazed
- Dimensions
- Height: 50.8 cm; Width: 91.4 cm
Technical characteristics
- Place recorded
- Iznik, Turkey
Identification
- Source note
- Transcribed from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London collection record for this single object (sentences kept verbatim apart from removed sale or rarity wording); how far it represents a wider collectible type has not been independently verified.
- Candidate id
- vam-O202636
- Museum object name
- Tile panel
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Museum object number
- 431 to C-1900
- Museum system number
- O202636
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and dating against a specialist reference; this entry documents one recorded example.