Three Mamluk blue and white hexagonal pottery tiles, Syria, mid-15th century

Ex-collection Oliver Hoare (1945-2018).
Ex-collection G. Antaki, Europe.
Ex-collection Ispenian, Cairo and Alexandria, circa 1900.

The blue and white palette of these tiles, as well as the frond-like vegetation decorating their surface is indebted to Chinese fifteenth century blue and white export ceramics. Scholarship, which was originally divided between Egypt and Syria, has attributed these tiles to Syria, probably Damascus, based on in situ buildings and the provenances of tiles in museum collections with large holdings of such tiles, notably the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. For further information on Mamluk tiles, see J. Carswell, 'Six Tiles', R. Ettinghausen ed., Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972, p.99, and E. Gibbs, 'Mamluk Ceramics' in Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 63, 1998-99.