A SIGNED POLYCHROME-PAINTED JERUSALEM POTTERY TILE WITH ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
Jerusalem, Holy Land, ca. 1920s

Of square shape, painted in cobalt blue, copper green, red, yellow and black against a white ground, the central field featuring the recognisable figure of St. George (Kevork) on his white steed slaying the Dragon, the rider marked with a large yellow halo, his distinctive red-cross shield on the upper left corner, with a decorative diamond-shaped frieze on cobalt blue ground around the edges, the back signed with black Armenian characters in a monogram, indicating a likely production in one of the major 20th-century Armenian pottery workshops in Jerusalem like David Ohannessian (1884 - 1953) or the Karakashian family (active from 1919).

14.5cm x 14.5cm