'To acquire a good name': Specimens of nineteenth century Persian tile making from the Tehran workshop of the master potter Ali Muhammad Isfahani

Abstract

This paper presents the analytical results obtained on the study of a green pigment, part of 23 samples of raw materials from the late 19th century Persian workshop of the master potter Ali Muhammad Isfahani, today in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In collaboration with institutions in the United Kingdom and France the samples were investigated using non-invasive and non-destructive analytical techniques to characterise their quantitative elementary composition and the structure of crystalline and amorphous phases present. The composition of the green sample was compared with a treatise by the master potter, which illustrates his description of the working process and with results obtained from one of his finished tiles, now in the collection of the National Museums Scotland. It is hoped that the analytical investigation of the raw material together with the finished object will help our art historical understanding of the workshop