Square tile from an inscriptional frieze with birds and flowers in relief

Label text from exhibition “Re-View,” an overview of objects drawn from the collections of Harvard Art Museums, 26 April 2008 – 1 July 2013; label text written by Mary McWilliams, Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art: Frieze Tile with Inscription, Birds, and Flowers Iran, probably Takht-i Sulayman, lIkhanid dynasty, c. 1270s Fritware with molded relief and luster painting over glaze Inscribed (Persian) Two luminous cheeks like the moon. Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of John Goelet, 1958.47 Within a few centuries of its invention in ninth-century Iraq, the complicated technique of creating lustered ceramics passed to Egypt, and then to Iran. A closely guarded trade secret, luster painting presumably migrated with families of potters, buffeted by political upheavals. The city of Kashan was the center of the luster industry in Iran during the Saljuq-Atabeg period. Despite the turbulence of the Mongol conquests, Kashan potters continued to produce brilliant luster designs into the 1300s.