TWO POLYCHROME-PAINTED FIGURAL KUBACHI POTTERY TILES
PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTION
Safavid Iran, 17th century

Comprising two pairing Kubachi pottery tiles, each of octagonal shape, underglaze painted in black, cobalt blue, green, vibrant red and yellow, all against a white ground, one depicting a female youth in traditional dress playing the tambourine, set amongst lush floral motifs, the other with a male youth holding a jar with similar background motifs, each tile marked on the reverse with previous inventory numbers, each 18.5cm x 18.5cm.

The term Kubachi, usually attributed to these folkish pottery creations with colourful figures, comes from a remote Daghestani village where many examples of tiles and wares similar to these two were found. Such pottery items were used to decorate villagers’ houses towards the end of the 19th century. The pictorial composition of our tiles is very similar to a dish in the Al Sabah Collection in Kuwait. The colours and form of the flowers may seem partially indebted to the Iznik pottery tradition, but the figures and their outfits follow contemporary conventions in Persian manuscript painting (Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, 2004, p. 460).