Tile panel, Qajar enamelwork, Iran, 1800-1850

Tile panel (six tiles mounted in two parts), fritware mixed with coarse buff-coloured clay, comprising four square tiles and two rectangular tiles, covered with tin-opacified white slip and polychrome painted. The elaborate design imitates Qajar enamelwork on gold. The design is complex and carefully ordered consisting of a series of pictorial and floral themes vertically aligned from top to bottom:-

This square tile depicts an escalloped oblong cartouche containing the motif of a lion and dragon interlocked in combat. Their are floating on a turquoise ground with spiraling tendrils in black. The lion, facing right, is painted in yellow with his fur shaded in grey. It is biting the dragon's neck. The dragon, also facing right, in shaded and stippled pink has a long snake-like neck and head. His body is coiled around the back of the lion, above them is a stylised sun motif in the form of the face of a Qajar beauty. The cartouche is supported by two winged semi-nude female figures above a bouquet of roses in a semicircular nimbus. Along the left side is a narrow border pattern with a continuous repeat of medallions of European buildings alternating with flowerheads, against a deep blue ground.

Mounted on a wood frame with three other tiles in an ebonized wood and gold lined frame.