In case you missed it, a notable book on Iranian interiors was just published, called Behind Closed Curtains. It documents all the pretty interiors of Iranian designers, conservationists, and boutique hoteliers. Finally someone had decided to properly photograph and write about our interiors that are so inherently Iranian.
While flipping its pages I came upon an image of a fireplace from ‘Dibai House’ in Isfahan. Not exactly a fireplace, at least not a functioning one, it was a mish mash of motifs with the Persian touch visibly creeping into a mixture of both Far Eastern and European. Not having seen the original myself, I can only assume that today this recessed space in the wall is only decoratively used to hold a large copper bowl with whatever it may need to store throughout the year, be it water or hot coal. What originally caught my eye was what one would call the mantelpiece of the fireplace, it not being a real one, looked like something I had seen in images of a shrine in Ardebil. It has six consecutive recessed spaces, in other words niches, usually made to hold porcelain ware*. This image got me thinking if there was a connection between the shrine’s beautiful room known as Chini Khaneh, which literally translates to ‘porcelain house’ and what we see in the book.
Isfahan became the beauty it is today under the care and reign of Shāh Abbās (1571- 1629), from the Safavid dynasty. Although his family hailed from Ardebil, he chose Isfahan as his capital. Now that’s a thought… if there ever was a connection between Ardebil that is located northwest of Iran and Isfahan’s central location, Shāh Abbās must have been it! After some research I realized that the shrine had been dedicated to Shāh Abbās’ ancestor and founder of his house, Sheikh Safi. Shāh Abbās had eventually used the shrine to house his beloved porcelain collection, today known as the Chinese Porcelains From The Ardebil Shrine. Most of the porcelain had been gifted to Iran during the Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644). Most of them are blue and white glazed vases and there seems to have been jade and agate bowls as well, which by today’s standards they would be invaluable. Porcelain used to be known as white gold and was highly prized and coveted during the time of Shāh Abbās and remained so for many years later.
The development of porcelain evolved over the span of many centuries. The earliest predecessors of porcelain vessels come in the form of utilitarian bronze vessels that were intended to follow the deceased into the afterlife. The bronzes were originally cast in sections in clay molds, and later welded together, and in time the clay molds used in manufacturing these bronzes led to the development of porcelain.
Porcelain was made of a clay mixture of feldspar, granite and pegmatite that when fired in very high temperatures resulted in a fine white substance and coated with a glaze made out of petuntse. The fact that the word ‘porcelain’ derives from the Portuguese porcellana, the name of a seashell resembling the whiteness of the matter, had led to the assumption that the Portuguese were the first merchants to trade with China in the 16th Century. The Europeans were far behind in this industry and it would take them many more centuries to master the technique. While they were at it, they came up with innovative ways of displaying and revamping their most coveted pieces such as creating recessed spaces in walls for the sole purpose of displaying their collection.
It is curious to see how one thing relates to the other and a tall tale of kings, trade and art seeps into the seams. It is obvious that Shāh Abbās’ china room was a precursor to what we see in the West, but with the reopening of the Silk Route in Persia, for which history credits Shāh Abbās, and the flow of goods from East to West, it reminds us of how intertwined our visual vocabulary is with our East and Western neighbors.
Dibai House, Isfahan, Jpg, Lena Späth and Hamed Farhangi, Behind Closed Curtains: Interior Design in Iran, (Spain: Novoprint, 2017), 109.
Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin, completed in 1706, Jpg, http://a-l-ancien-regime.tumblr.com/post/20782264201/the-porcelain-chamber-in-charlottenburg-palace: (accessed May 27, 2018).