Kutahya Tiles and Pottery from the Armenian Cathedral of St. James, Jerusalem (2 VOLUMES)

Oxford University Press, 1972 Book. Good. Hardcover. 1st Edition. English text; Hardcover (with dust jackets); 24 x 33.2 cm; Volume 1-The Pictorial Tiles and Other Vessels, including catalogue of inscribed and dated armenian pottery by John Carswell and an edition of the armenian texts with a translation and notes by C.J.F. Dowsett (ISBN: 0-19-817176-5, 1.2 Kg, 132 pages) and Volume 2-A Historical Survey of the Kutahya Industry and a Catalogue of the Decorative Tiles by John Carswell (ISBN 0-19-817176-5, 1.5 Kg, 207 pages).; Colour and black and white illustrations throughout.; Used with signs of wear on the dust jackets and on the interior. The dust jacket is price clipped, and show signs of wear, namely minor tears. The dust jackets are now protected with clearcovers. Some pages of volume 2 have signs of have been bent at the bottom of the pages. Interior in good condition.; Volume II is signed by the author with a dedication to a previous owner.; In A.D. 1718/19, Armenian potters in Kutahya in north-western Turkey made a series of pictorial tiles for the restoration of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Never used for their original purpose, the majority were instead set in the walls of the Armenian Cathedral of St. James in Jerusalem. Painted with Biblical subjects, the original sequence has now been reconstructed, on the basis of an Armenian chronicle written on the lower margins. The chronicle itself contains interesting details concerning the spiritual and temporal fortunes of the Armeninan Patriarchate in Jerusalem in the early eighteenth century. In the first volume, bowls and dishes similarly decorated, and part of the same donation, are also described, and there is a detailed catalogue of all inscribed and dated Kutahya pottery throughout the world. The second volume uses this material to trace the origins and development of the Kutahya pottery industry from the fifteenth century onwards, and its relationship to the Ottoman pottery industry at Isnik. There is also a catalogue of the different types of Kutahya tiles, amongst the thousands used to decorate the Cathedral and its dependant churches in Jerusalem, during the renovations that took place between A.D. 1727-37. Copiously illustrated with colour and monochrome plates, text figures, and plans, the work also gives details of Kutahya tiles in churches and mosques throughout the Near East. There are also separate studies on hanging ornaments, incense-holders, Chinese porcelain tiles and Kutahya copies of them, potters' marks, and a spectrographic analysys of samples of Kutahya, Isnik, Damascus, and other pottery, including the famous Godman ewer and water-bottle..