Large Qallaline panel with floral mihrâb - Lot 62

Large Qallaline panel with floral mihrâb Tunisia, Qallaline workshops, 18th century Earthenware panel composed of 45 tiles painted in green, yellow, brown and blue polychrome on a white background opacified with tin oxide. Symmetrical composition of a large floral bouquet spouting from a gadrooned vase, inscribed in a two-tone keyed arch topped by a finial and supported by two colonnettes. Two birds, one blue and yellow, the other yellow, face each other, turning their heads in the upper part of the composition. The whole is surrounded by foliage scrolls on a green background above the mihrâb. Condition: minor accidents, a few fractured tiles, small fillings and one larger one, glaze stained in places; mounted on a wooden structure. Sight size: 134 x 74 cm; frame size: 144 x 84 cm. Provenance:Collection François Mallet (1972-1958), Tunis; his daughter Denise (1904-1989), wife of Dr. Jean Marmey (1901-2001), then by direct descent. François Mallet was Director of Agriculture and Trade in Tunisia. The city of Tunis presented him with this mihrâb floral panel when he left Tunisia for Morocco at the request of Marshal Lyautey (1854-1934). His daughter Denise inherited it. Denise née Mallet was the wife of Dr. Jean Marmey, a gynecologist in Rabat in the 1940s-60s. He is indeed listed in the 1958 directory of Rabat doctors as head physician at the Maréchal Lyautey maternity hospital located at the corner of the former avenues Pasteur and Victor Hugo in the Océan district. Dr. Jean Marmey was also the obstetrician at the Royal Palace of His Majesty King Hassan II, and delivered the future King Mohammed VI. Dr. Marmey was decorated by King Hassan II with the Order of the Wissam Alaouite for services rendered to Morocco for his career at the Rabat maternity hospital, and the couple were regular guests at the Palace. Denise and Jean Marmey left Morocco around 1983 to settle in France. settle in France. This ceramic panel is virtually identical to the one formerly in the Loviconi collection (reproduced in Alain and Dalila Loviconi, Les Faïences de Tunisie. Qallaline et Nabeul, Edisud, Aix-en-Provence, 1994, p.132 and in the exhibition catalog Couleurs de Tunisie. 25 siècles de céramique, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 1994-95, IMA Éditions, Paris, 1994, cat. 208, p. 252), which was recently auctioned by Millon (Arts du Maghreb, Paris, September 21, 2023, lot 135). Only slight variations in color distinguish the two panels, which appear to have been painted with the same poncifix by the same ceramist. The name Qallaline, plural of qallal, which designates Tunisian production in the Modern Age, covers both the name of the potters' trade and that of their district located in the immediate suburbs of Tunis, between Bab Souika and Bab al-Jazira. However, the production of these workshops, which had existed since the 10th century, took the name Qallaline for pieces manufactured between the 17th and 19th centuries. The clay ceramics produced are earthenware, as they are painted on tin glaze (Adnan Louhichi in Couleurs de Tunisie de Tunisie, op. cit., p. 183). There are several types of large, decorative earthenware panels made up of numerous rows of tiles. The most common is the "mihrâb panel", which can feature geometric, epigraphic or floral decoration, as shown here. Another "mihrâb panel" adorning the back of a dukkâna (niche) in Dar es-Settari is published by Jacques Revault, Palais et Demeures de Tunis (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles), Revue Études d'Antiquités Africaines, Éditions du CNRS, 1971, p. 291 and fig. 101. Expert : Madame Laure SOUSTIEL.