QUATRE CARREAUX DE REVÊTEMENT GHAZNÉVIDES - Lot 38

QUATRE CARREAUX DE REVÊTEMENT GHAZNÉVIDES AFGHANISTAN, late 12th CENTURY Square-shaped, with figurative decoration of animals in relief in a beaded frame, molded under a mustard or bottle-green glaze. Widths: 13, 12, 11.5 and 10 cm. Private collection in Paris (Acquired during a trip organized in March 1975 for the Friends of the Louvre). These tiles belong to a series found in Ghazni, the capital of the Ghaznevid dynasty (977-1186), in a house destroyed during the Mongol invasion of 1221. Most of the tiles in the series are square, some are polygonal, relief-molded with animals, plants or sometimes inscriptions. Although these tiles are unique in style, their decoration shows affinities with classic pre-Islamic Iranian motifs, such as "beaded" borders and animals in profile within a frame. (Millner, Arthur. Indian Tiles: Architectural Ceramics from Sultanate and Mughal India and Pakistan. Munich: Prestel, 2021. p. 236, cat. 2, ill.). Wear, minor accidents and glaze skip.