Tile with Niche Design

Inscription: On outer band from lower right corner, in Arabic in naskh script:
In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. The building of this structure was ordered by the supreme Sultan Abu Anbiyya al-Muzaffar A[bu] Sa'id Bahadur Khan, may God perpetuate his kingdom. Nusrat al-Din Muhammad wrote this in the year 860/1455–56 CE.

Some mistakes in the inscription, indicating a Persian speaker.

Theodore M. Davis, New York (by 1914–d. 1915; bequeathed to MMA)

Washington. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. "Timur and the Princely Vision. Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century," April 14, 1989–July 6, 1989, no. 113A-B.

Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Timur and the Princely Vision. Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century," August 13, 1989–November 5, 1989, no. 113A-B.

Paris. Musée du Louvre. "Louvre Long Term Loan," April 28, 2004–April 27, 2006, no catalogue.

Ettinghausen, Richard, and Arthur Upham Pope. "Dated Faience." In Survey of Persian Art. vol. 2. 1939. vol. II, no. 135, p. 1687 (no ill.).

Grube, Ernst J. "Notes on the Decorative Arts of the Timurid Period." In Gururajamañjarika: Studi in onore di Giuseppe Tucci. Naples, 1974. ill. fig. 67, pl. LXIV.

Watson, Oliver. "Persian Lustreware from the 14th to the 19th Centuries." Le Monde Iranien et l'Islam vol. 3 (1974). pp. 68–69, ill. figs. 1–2, pl. 1.

Grube, Ernst J. Islamic Pottery of the Eight to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection. London: Faber and Faber, 1976. no. 259, pp. 298–99 (related).

Islamic Works of Art, Carpets and Textiles. London: Sotheby's, London, October 12–13, 1982. no. 22, p. 25, ill.; a similar tile, but without inscriptions.

Watson, Oliver. Persian Lustre Ware. London; Boston: Faber and Faber, 1985. pp. 159,160, 197, ill. fig. 129 (b/w); see also Appendix III, no. 133.

Lentz, Thomas W., and Glenn D. Lowry. "Persian Art and Culture in the Fifteenth Century." In Timur and the Princely Vision. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989. no. 113 A–B, pp. 213, 352, ill. p. 213 (color).

Tilden, Jill, ed. First Under Heaven: The Art of Asia, Hali annual, vol. 4 (1997). p. 17, ill. fig. 16 (color).