{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O205276"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O205276/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BK9409/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006BK9409/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006BK9409","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O205276/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O205276","accessionNumber":"1822-1876","objectType":"Tile","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Memorial stele with decoration on one side, probably intended to be set up against a wall. The shape is roughly an upright rectangle with a triangular upper section. Made of fritware painted under the glaze in black and blue on a white ground. \n\nIt bears four lines of inscriptions, arranged in two groups of two, set in cartouches with shaped ends (except the beginning of line 4). There are three bands of Chinese-inspired ornament above, between and below the two groups of two lines. The first two lines contain a couplet in Persian. A second couplet from the same poem fills the third line, and the fourth line records the name and date of death of the deceased, written in Arabic. All four lines are written in a shaky <i>nasta'liq</i> hand, in black. \n\nAbove the text, in the triangular space at the top of the stele, is a group of objects that may have been owned by the deceased (and indicate his status as an educated man). In the centre is a turban on a stool. To the left are a pen box, penknife and scissors (used for cutting paper). To the right are three unidentified, onion-shaped objects. Further to the left and along the upper margin are plant-based motifs of Chinese origin. \n\nThe whole stele is framed by a band with a diaper pattern interrupted by roundels with four-petal rosettes (?) on a white ground. \n\nDated 1643.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"fritware","id":"x29419"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},{"text":"glazed","id":"AAT53914"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Fritware with decoration painted under the glaze","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"MES","id":"THES48607"},"images":["2006BK9409"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"137 (VA)","id":"THES49876"},"free":"","case":"W","shelf":"1","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Tile","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Iran","id":"x30220"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1643","earliest":"1643-01-01","latest":"1643-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"The deceased died in February or March 1643."}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"33.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"24.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"درون قبر اگر آهی کشم از سینه چاکم\r\nشود بریان اگر مرغی نه شیند بر سر خاکم\r\n\r\nپس از مرگم نشورد هیچکس بر جان غمناکم\r\nمگر شمعی بسوزد گاه گاهی بر سر خاکم\r\n\r\nالمرحوم ملک ولد حسین فی شهر ذی الحجة سنة ۱۰۵۲","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"If I utter a groan from my tattered breast within the tomb,\r\n[It is because] it is afflicted by sorrow if a bird perches at the head of my grave.\nAfter I am dead, let no one cause a commotion over my grief-stricken soul,\nUnless they light a taper from time to time at the head of my grave.\n\nThe one taken unto [God's] mercy, Malik, the son of Husayn, [died] in the month of Dhu'l-Hijjah of the year 1052.","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The month of Dhu'l-Hijjah 1052 in the Hijri calendar corresponds to period 20 February to 22 March 1643."}],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Ceramic memorial stele, fritware painted under the glaze in blue and black on a white ground, Iran, 1643","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Yui Kanda, <i>Safavid Ceramic Tombstones</i>, M.Phil. dissertation, University of Oxford, 2015,  pp.42-3, with references to:\r\n\r\nEttinghausen, Richard, \"The Ceramic Art in Islamic Times: B. Dated Faience\", in <i>A Survey of Persian Art</i>, eds. Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, vol. 2, London and New York,  1939, no.186.\r\n\r\nCrowe, Yolande, <i>Persia and China</i>, Geneva, 2002, no.273.\r\n\r\nGolombek, Lisa, and others, <i>Persian Pottery in the First Global Age,</i> Leiden and Boston, 2014, p.433.\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Yui Kanda, “Kashan Revisited: A Luster-Painted Ceramic Tombstone Inscribed with a Chronogram Poem by Muhtasham Kashani”, Muqarnas Online, 34, no. 1 (2017), p.278, fig.5."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"flowers","id":"x35571"},{"text":"diaper-work","id":"AAT10144"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1822-1876"],"accessionNumberNum":"1822","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1876,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-20","recordCreationDate":"2009-03-20","availableToBook":false}}