The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-07-30
LATEST ART FAD
IN PERSIAN LUSTER,
Beautifully Colored Tiles Now
Greatly Sought After by
Wealthy Collectors.
MASTERS OUTLINED DESIGNS.
First American to Recognize Beau.
ties of Luster Was G. E.
Moore, Whose Tiles Are
in an Eastern Museum.
Walthy men have their uses.

Walthy men have their uses.
They make the best conservators of art
The world owes much to it's great collec-
tors who use their wealth to preserve from
destruction any object of beauty which it
could i'll afford to lose.
1t is true that other motives than the
pure love of beauty go to feed the COL
lector's passion.
There are the pride of connoisseurship and
the excitement OF the game.
1t is glorious and sometimes profitable to
be one of the first in new field, and the
great coIector of to-day neglects no coun-
try and no period in which art was
practiced.
Prices fuctuate but in general an object
really rare and artistic Is sure to grow in
valve.
To discover such an object the collectors
eye ranges from London to Constantinople
and from Teheran to Toxic.
Just now ii is very likely to have in view
some bargain in Persian luster.
Those surprising metallic reflections. those
unforeseen flashes of ruby, emerald and
nacer which constitute the special charm
of lustered wares were doubtless at the be-
ginning due to accidents in firing.
A composition of silver and copper seems
at an early date to have been substituted
for gold and this forming Ing film un ;,S
If not discovered in Persia it was at any
rate developed there to its greatest artistic
very light touch and a somewhat rough
paste to bring out its full brilliancy.
MERITS OF THE LUSTER.
The luster ITSELF. c.. the metallic pig
ment-is exceedingly thin. 1t is always ap-
piled over the glaze and but slightly fired
Hence it is often almost completely worn
away, and as tiles or vessels in perfect con-
IL ,l,x-,,, and civ
are among the most valuable curiositieS in
the great European collections:
American collectors. as rule. have only
Just awakened to its merits
Horaces "Persios obi apparatus did not
apply to Persian luster. for in his day 1t
had not been invented.
counts of Arab travellers in Egypt and
Spain. in the Tenth Century.
Excavations at old Cairo have Welded
been found at Brahminabad. in India. but
we know as yet nothing so early from
Spain or from Persia itself; ,,,es are Of the
Thirteenth Century. stu, everything points
to Persia as the country where painting in
luster originated.
of the Indus on the one hand and of the
Guadalquivr on the other. From Spain 1t
reached Italy. in the Fifteenth Century. and
from Spain also it must have been intro
duced into Mexico. where the Indians have
preserved the secret to the present day.
Throughout the whole width of the Aryan
world, excepting Italy. Persian design has
accompanied Persian luster, and Persian
flowers and animals, the rose. the iris, the
vine the tulip. the nightingale and the ga
zelle-in short. the whole stock in trade Of
Persian poets and lmners may be found
often so conventionalized as to be scarcely
recognizable. on the platters made for Span
ish and Italian ecclesiastical digntarieS by
the specifically Christianized Moors Of old
Valencia.
Indeed. Persian decorative motives some
times appear even on the Italian luSter
plaques of Cubic and Castel Durante.
TWO IMPORTANT PERIODS.
In the history of Persian luster proper
two important periods are to be distin-
guished. The designs on the Oldest frag-
ments show decided traces of Byzantine in
huence.
Their art is that of the old Byzantine
PROVINCES and should be called Eastern
medieval rather than Mohammedan.
In the Thirteenth and Fourteenth centu-
ries 1t grew in Persia to new art. Even
then the human figure. although banned by
Mohammedan prejudices, was not uncom-
mon; but insead OF meager Byzantine saints.
uncomfortably throned, we have on the star
houris seated cross-legged on the flower
strewn grass, or siik-clad knights on horse
back playing polo or following the chase.
1t is significant that figured tiles in relief,
like NJ. Goldschmidt's illustrating episodes
from the Shah Nameh. are generally said to
have come-romantic providence!-from "a
ruined castle in AZerblian."
The mosque tales of the same period like
those in the great Mihrab. here illustrated.
(ontaiI no figures, but marvellous decorative
inscriptions and a wealth of floral orna-
ment. painted. lustered and in relief
The second period Is usually made contem-
poraneous with tie reign of Shah Abbas in
GLIDING the end Of the siSteaaIh and the be-