Syria, Damascus, Ottoman art, second half of the 16th century
Rectangular siliceous ceramic border tile painted in cobalt blue, turquoise and green on a white background, decorated with groups of three sequins separated by double diagonally wavy lines, said to be decorated with "tigers and ocelli" or "Buddha's lips and çintamani". Condition: very good, very nice glaze, a small chip on the rim.
L. : 26.5 cm ; H. : 12.8 cm ; Th. : 2 cm
Sotheby's, Islamic Art, October 1992
Former Collection Franco and Franca Bernasconi, Lugano, inv. n° B9255 A/B
The highly sought-after decoration of this tile, composed of groups of three ocelli associated with a double tiger, was once called "çintamani and Buddha's lips". Of Chinese origin, this motif is said to derive from the fur of wild animals imitating leopard spots and tiger stripes, and has a talismanic value in Iran as well as in the Ottoman Empire (exhibition Cartier et les Arts de l'Islam. Aux sources de la Modernité, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 2021)
This motif was very popular with the Ottomans in the 16th century. A similar Damascus tile is illustrated in Arthur Millner, Damascus Tiles, Prestel Editions, 2015, Fig. 6.101, p. 287 (Tile with tiger-stripe and dots).
A similar tile was also sold at Sotheby's in October 2017 (Howard Hodgkin, Portrait of the Artist, lot 356).
It is likely that our tile was placed at the edge of another facing panel. This type of decorative arrangement can be seen in an impressive panel in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Inv. 4:1 to 9-1897). Expert L.S.
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