The Pleasures of Collecting

by Gardner C. Teall

Of Persian objets d’art an anoymous writer in the article on Persia in “The Everyman Encyclopædia” has said:

The arts and crafts of Persia have suffered terribly from the state of misrule. Always artistic by nature, many beautiful arts were theirs, the secret of which has been forgotten through the years of civil war and trouble. Among them the exquisite lustre-ware, charming in design and coloring, is now difficult to obtain. The enamel work for which they were once famous is a lost art; formerly tiles of this work, exquisite in color and beautiful in pattern, were freely produced, and many wonderful specimens have been saved from ancient ruins, and many are still the glory of mosques and shrines; the predominating color was a very beautiful turquoise blue in various shades, and a red-golden lustre which gave the work a peculiar iridescence. Jugs and basins in this enamel work have been saved, exceedingly beautiful in form and pattern. Silver work and brass work was an ancient industry; very little is done now. Carved wood, inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, is still made to some extent, also seal-cutting. The Persian art which flourished in ancient times influenced Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, and was the father of Saracenic art and architecture, which has travelled far since its birth.

Persia has ever been famed for its textiles—not only embroideries and printed cottons but marvelous rugs which stand supreme in beauty. The old rugs of Persia were ancestors of the carpet of other lands. In this connection it is worth noting that the Persians never made themselves ridiculous by the application of inappropriate design. You will not find an old Persian rug patterned with formal bouquets tied with blue ribbons, suggesting a gift being trodden underfoot. A Persian floral patterned carpet will suggest flowers and verdue in their wild state as the stroller might chance to find them.

Although the impress of the art of the Chinese ceramicist and of the shawl-weavers of Cashmere exerted some influence upon the Persians, still the art of Persia from earliest times has retained a national distinction. Nearly all are objects from the earlier periods now to be met with date from the reign of the shah Abbas the Great (1586-1628) when the native art manufacturers reached their greatest degree of excellence. Thence onward came the decline.

We have only to consider the fact that artistic ornamentation was applied to innumerable objects in daily service to realize how widely diffused was the taste for art among the Persians. They have truly been always an art-loving people. Some one has aptly remarked that every home in India is a nursery of art, and I think this must once have been true of the home in Persia. Apropos of Persian ornament it may be remarked that the native artists have always delighted in varied and symmetrical patterns of great intricacy. External beauty, too, seems to have been sought, rather than intrinsic thorough excellence of fabrique, excepting, of course, the products of the Persian looms and the works of the masters in metal.

As to Persian pottery, it has always been more or less of a puzzle to antiquarians. The ancient pieces in a perfect state of preservation are exceedingly few and rare, and all have been recovered from ruined areas.

There yet remain vast areas to be excavated by enterprising antiquarian expeditions and later efforts are sure to be productive.

The ancient lustre faience dates back many centuries. Its genre was carried down as late as 1586. The finest Persian ware resembles Chinese porcelain somewhat, having a white ground with azure-blue decoration in bold, free designs. The paste is hard and the color is not blended with the glaze. Later specimens of this genre have less good design, blending color, and a glaze showing greater vitrification.

A second sort of Persian faience is thicker, shows a departure from Chinese influence somewhat, has a softer and more porous paste, is brighter in the blue, has a less even glaze, and a less well-drawn design. Red enters, as also relief and gaufrures.

A third sort of ware is denser and harder, of blackish color on a white ground, with thick glaze, and some pieces have been varnished with single color. Such pieces in this genre as exhibit figures in the decoration show these without faces, which would suggest that this class of pottery was the product of Persian potters of the Mussulman Sunnis sect, a sect more rigidly opposed to presenting the human face in art than that of the Shiahs.