Persian painted tile work from the 18th and 19th centuries

The art of underglazed polychrome tilework flourished in several cultural centers of Turkey and Iran before the Mongol conquest. The Shiraz school survived this catastrophe, flourishing especially under the rule of Karim Khan Zand and his successors (1751-94). After Aqa Mohammad Khan Qajar moved the capital to Tehran, some of the master tilemakers followed and continued their work until the early years of the 20th century, when one of the unintended consequences of the modernizing trend was a rapid decline of inerest in this traditional art. This book by a noted Iranian art historian, expertly translated by a lover and collector of haft rang tilework, was compiled on the basis of years of fieldwork, research among collectors, and a personal archive of tape-recorded interviews with descendants of the craftsmen involved. It is full of high-quality photographs in stunning color of the public and private art produced during this century-and-a-half. Surprising is the amount of original vernacular and figurative art besides the tradtional floral, religious, hunting, historical and poetical motifs: portraits of grandees, panoramas of the Bushehr War, character studies of anonymous citizens.