Lust for lustre

This square tile - 30 x 29 centimeter - is covered in lustre glaze, a technique that leaves an iridescent shimmer. Highly advanced technological knowledge is necessary to produce this effect. The technique was refined to perfection in the city of Kashan in formerly Persia, nowadays Iran, under the Ilkhanid dynasty around the 13th-14th century.The tiles adorned mostly the interior and exterior surfaces of mosques and shrines during this period.

From the 19th century onwards, Europeans eagerly collected lustre tiles. Many of the Ilkhanid designs also inspired - or were appropriated by - artists such as Escher and artistic currents such as the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United Kingdom. The word ‘luster’ is still used today, for example in make-up with a metallic shine.

This tile, was not sold to the museum in the 19th century, but in 1975, showing how the lust for lustre continued far into the 20th century. It was sold as being made in Kashan,famously the production centre of luster tiles.

Museums worldwide collected tiles with very similar designs and measurements during the 19th century, more than 160 tiles are known. Their provenance is largelyundocumented. In hindsight, most of them were attributed to the archaeological site of Takht-I-Sulaiman (Throne of Solomon) in Iranian Azerbeijan, after a German archaeological expedition found similar sherds and moulds for this exact type of tile. Takht-I-Sulaiman is well known, especially because it is the only thoroughly excavated non-religious structure to have survived from the Ilkhanid period. 

Another reason for the Wereldmuseum to acquire this tile, was the “Qur’anic inscription” in blue writing. This could be used to demonstrate the ‘sacred character of the Arabic script’. However, the text was mistakenly assumed to be in Arabic, while it was in fact written in Farsi.

So which verse was chosen on our tile here? The text, reads as “Magar mehregān āyad bād-e to / Unless autumn will come from your wind”. Strangely, this hemistich does not appear in the regular versions of the Shahnameh. Did the calligrapher make a mistake or chose to improvise or is something else at stake? 

This tile was heavily restored before it was sold to the museum. This can be seen clearly from the back where different cracks are visible. The front as well, shows wherefigurines were added in a different style where paint does not show the so loved lustre sheen. Additionally, the glaze has strongly eroded on some parts and less on others.Perhaps this tile is in fact a collage of different sherds pieced together, a practice that was and still is not uncommon in the artworld.  And does this mean that the verse is in fact an improvised intervention by a creative restorer? These questions will unfortunately remain unanswered for now. Can we at least say that the tile came from the archaeological site of Takht-I-Sulaiman?

Recent research suggests that, although this type of tiles is classically said come from Takht-I-Sulaiman, which was the only excavated and documented palace of the Ilkhans, this dynasty took pride in many other splendid palaces and seasonal residences, living as “royal nomads”. These other buildings, some perennial, some permanent, may havefeatured similar tiles which could have been found by 19th collectors and distributed over European museums. Parts of this tile could therefore come from other places as well. 

Another possibility is that tiles were removed from the walls of Takht-I Sulaiman and were ‘recycled’ as decoration for other buildings. Several examples are known, for instance the 14th century church of Eghvard in Armenia. Some of these buildings could have been, on their turn, plundered the 19th century, and their tiles taken off to Europe. 

Another Ilkhanid-style lustre tile can be seen in the Asia Room of Wereldmuseum Leiden, from the mausoleum of Yahya in Varamin near Tehran.