Ardabil – in 1896

A while ago, I included details from an 1850s description of the famous Ardabil collection of ceramics being used for charitable feasts for the poor – and also referenced some (copyrighted) images showing the ceramic collection looking very like piles of washing up after a big party ( in Pope’s catalogue from 1956).

Now the Boston Public Library have made some very special 1896 images of Ardabil available, from Friedrich Sarre’s Denkmaler Persischer Baukunst, including the one shown on the left of the ceramic collection laid out on the floor of the chinikhana.  I’ve made this photo large so you can also look at the detail of the gorgeous tiles on the walls – obscured somewhat in my modern photo by the display cases.

Sarre’s photos from Ardebil (click here to read the whole book) include some showing the disrepair of the time – the Jannatsara has no dome, and many of the tiles are in a bad way – and also one showing the tomb of Shah Ismail, shoehorned into the space left between the haramkhana, tomb tower of Shaykh Safi, and the Shahnishin (rebuilt by Shah Abbas). Sarre’s image shows it lit by many and varied candles but I don’t know if this was to help with the photography – it’s poky and dark now, even with electricity laid on – or if it was usually illuminated in this way at this time.