Description: Up for sale is this extremely rare, special order set of 5 pottery tiles made in Jerusalem in 1926, This tiles were hand painted and fired by the famous Armenian artist David Ohannessian who formed the "Dome of the Rock tiles Workshop" in 1919, this rare and early example, still in its original frame is one Of the earliest works known to exist by this workshop, the small brass plaque that says :"Tiles made in Jerusalem(1926)Presented to GreatPriory By E. Knt. Matteh Thomson" The tiles have their exact explanation of what they symbolize, 1: The arms of the order of the hospital of St John of Jerusalem2: Shield of the crusading Kings of Jerusalem3: Name of JESUS in Aramaic4: Arms of the church of the holy Sepulchre 5: White cross of the Knights of St John The fame has some early stickers on it, first one is of the firm "BISHOPS MOVE", during ww2 bishops move provided vital Removal services for goverment department, as well as relocation of precious museum pieces, this object was probably placed on an Important place in the united kingdom until ww2. Size :Frame : 88 cm x 27.5Tiles:Jesus tile 20x13.5 cm Other tiles 13.5x13.5 cm Condition:Overall good, edges of the tiles has some chips in the glaze, The edges of the main "jesus" tile have some minor restoration to them After General Edmund Allenby conquered Jerusalem in late 1917, British officials planned a restoration of the Dome of the Rock, which had been covered with tiles in the sixteenth century and had required periodic renewal ever since. By the end of the First World War, tiles were falling from the building and could be found for sale in antiques shops. Ronald Storrs, the Military Governor of Jerusalem and founder of the Pro-Jerusalem Society, began to search for an expert ceramicist. In late 1918, Sir Mark Sykes’s final British Foreign Office mission took him to Aleppo by way of Jerusalem, where he too saw the precarious condition of the Dome of the Rock. In Aleppo, while interviewing Armenian refugees, Sykes re-encountered Ohannessian and connected him to Governor Storrs. The Ohannessian family arrived in Jerusalem in December of 1918.After six months of experiments and searches for appropriate local materials, Ohannessian, on his own initiative, requested safe-transit documents from the British Military Administration and briefly returned to Kutahya. There, he procured the needed clays and other minerals for the renovation of the Dome of the Rock and invited the remaining Armenian ceramicists, including the expert painter Mgrditch Karakashian and accomplished wheel potter Nishan Balian, as well as six others, to join him in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 1919, Ohannessian established his new workshop on the Via Dolorosa and named it the “Dome of the Rock Tiles.” There, together with the other Kutahya master ceramicists, he also trained a new generation of artists from among the orphans who had arrived at the Armenian Monastery after the genocide.In Jerusalem, Ohannessian maintained the ceramic techniques and ornamental repertoire of Ottoman and Persian traditions, but soon also incorporated the local Bird Mosaic design and other imagery from Armenian medieval and Crusader iconography. He also carried over to Jerusalem the Ottoman practice of architectural tile embellishment, creating brilliantly colored ornaments, panels, and fountains that remain a distinctive feature of the city. He also built an extensive international pottery trade, exporting ceramics to Europe, North and South America, Australia, and Africa.
Price: 8000 USD
Location: Tel Aviv
End Time: 2024-07-27T15:15:14.000Z
Shipping Cost: 300 USD
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Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Region of Origin: Middle East