The collection of prints with images principally of geometric and floral designs for interior wall and floor decoration, plus designs for jewellery and cermaics, and architect drawings. All are in portrait format with descriptive label struck on paper below the image. Printed, at lower left corner is [artist's] name and at right, the printer and number of the print.

Produced for the South Kensington Museum, London (now the Victoria & Albert Museum)

Date range is 1870-1885

Trubner & Co was the London agent for the Museum primarily for publications & printed matter. For evidence and documentation of this please refer to the archival files: MRS 8, Correspondence Sent - Trubner & Co. (London), 1884-1890, p.18-22; MRS 303, Recuisitions, 1882-1896 (in bundle of requisitions submitted to Trustees, 23 Dec 1884); and MRS 117/4, Annual Report, 1885, p.26. The letters deal with the acquisition of books & periodicals, orders for specific works & include enclosures in settlements of accounts. Trubner & Co became Messrs Kegan Paul, French & Trubner & Co from the 14 January 1890.

Chromolithograph, 'The front of the ruins of the Palace of Tamerlane Ar-Sarai , paper/ink, Various makers, Russia/England, [1870-1885]

Plate no. 50. Coloured image printed onto white paper depicting the front of the ruins of the Palace of Tamerlane. The image depicts the exterior view of a palace with people and donkeys scattered in the foreground. The image details the decorative walls of the palace. A note of explanation has been adhered to the page under the plate, l.c.

Designer: unknown; Russia

Maker: South Kensington Museum; London, England; 1870 - 1885


Owner: Trubner & Co

paper label l.c "50.-The front of the ruins of the Palace of Tamerlane Ak-Sarai, / found in the citadel of the town of Char (Chakh-Riziabs) the / summer residence of the Bokhara emirs and the place where / Tamerlane was born. According to an oral tradition, he was / born about the time when his mother went from Char to Kitab, / her own place of birth. It is said that her husband, Amir- / Taragai-Bagadour, had been sent with a detachment of soldiers / against the enemy. She then determined to go to her own / home, Kitab (30 versts from Char) and Tamerlane was born in / the course of the journey. The exterior front has preserved ( in / the central part) it ornaments in mosaic and tile of painted / and decorated faience. The height of the towers which arise at / the angles of the facade is 40 metres. At Char, beyond the / citadel, they have preserved the public baths of Tamerlane, and they are made use of to this day. They are in grey marble, / from the mountains of Kara Tubinsk; one sees there also / the mausoleum of Tamerlans's father Amir -Taragai-Bagadour, / adorned through out with mosaics, but since ruined, although / the interior part and the cupola are still entire."

97/25/5

554 mm

374 mm