Sykes' History of Persia Vol 2 (pdf) - Heritage Institute

ARCHITECTURE AND ART 289
added to the interest of the lustre tile is the fact that it
a lost art. It is known indeed that the soft
represents
paste was covered with an opaque glaze, generally white
or blue, and then baked. As a second process alloys of
gold, silver, copper and other metals were painted, and
the tile was baked again. These alloys produced colours
ranging from gold to ruby red and from turquoise blue
to brown ;
and no experiments have succeeded in successfully
imitating the superb beauty of the Persian ceramics.
The finest specimen of lustre in my possession consists
of a tile
measuring 24 inches by 1 8^ inches. The ground
is brown and on it are sapphire blue letters an inch wide,
standing up half an inch in relief and with turquoise blue
conventional leaves. Unfortunately, although many large
fragments of these tiles were brought to me,
it was impossible
to fit them together into a complete specimen,
but even in its imperfect condition its beauty is great.
The tiles without lustre which were manufactured
under the Timurids, and again under the Safavis, are also
very beautiful. Every colour is used, but the scroll-work
is so artistic and the mixture of the colours so perfect
that an effect is
produced of deep richness, which is
enhanced when the tiles are seen on some stately quadrangle
or portico, with the cloudless blue of the Persian
sky as a background. Here again
it is very difficult to
trace the artistic influences at work in the production of
the tiles ;
but there is no doubt that Chinese art, which
was introduced by the Mongols, powerfully affected the
impressionable Persian in tile-making as it did also in
painting, although Persian art never lost its marked
individuality in colour, shape and design.
Pottery. Not only in tiles,
but in pottery also, the
Persian artists achieved great beauty of shape, design and
colour. Here, too, Chinese influence may be observed,
and it is interesting
to learn from Chardin that the Dutch
sold " the porcelain of Meshed and Kerman " to customers
in Europe, pretending that it came from China. Perhaps
the finest Persian pottery
is the imitation Celadon ware,
in which Chinese designs are copied, but associated with
Persian characteristics. The Persian ware, which is white
VOL. II
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