Photo 978(23)

Genre: Architectural Photography

Close view of five pieces of decorative brickwork mounted on a wooden panel: 'These specimens, so frequently mentioned in the foregoing pages as embossed bricks, will give a fair idea of the exterior ornamentation on most of the Gaur buildings. By a close examination of plates 2 and 3 their original places may approximately be assigned to them. The Dakhil Gate and Qadam Rasul Mosque are ornamented in the same style; and from the latter most of the patterns formerly employed in quilting on Maldah silk were derived. On the Tantipara Mosque these bricks are combined with coloured encaustic tiles, which are the chief characteristic of the Lattan Mosque, where embossed bricks, generally in the shape of large roses, are only found over portals and arches. Coloured tiles are also to be seen in the debris of Husain Shah's tomb, the Chand and Nim Gates, and the domed erection adjoining the Eastern Gate of the Fort. On the small Golden Mosque the embossed workmanship is extremely delicate, in black polished stone. The Large Golden Mosque is also faced with the same stone, highly polished, but with no traces of embossed work on the ruin as it now stands, though Creighton, in his illustration, gives the whole front of the building the same ornamentation as its smaller namesake.'

[Woodburytype, 231x182mm].

Subjects = bricks (archaeological artefacts); brickwork (decorative); Indian architecture; Indian architecture (Islamic); printed books; Ravenshaw, J.H., 'Gaur: its ruins and inscriptions' (1878); Woodburytypes