Sultan's Palace brings two traditions into one composition: a cartouche of English trees at the centre, and around it a patchwork of faience tile mosaic taken from the facade of the Wazir Khan Mosque in Lahore, with its arched openings and dense botanical tilework. Martyn Lawrence Bullard has built much of his work on exactly this collision. The Wazir Khan tilework dates from the 1630s and remains one of the most complete surviving faience facades in South Asia.
The construction is patchwork, so the design has an underlying grid holding a great deal of incident: tile panels of different patterns butted against one another, with the cartouche interrupting them. It ought to be busy and is not, because the tile drawing is fine and low in contrast while the cartouche is held clear. The eye settles on the trees, then explores outward from them.
A 76.2 cm repeat on a straight match keeps the tile courses aligned horizontally, which the design depends on, and the 0.69 m roll covers a wall in fewer joins. It is drawn to sit alongside Zellige and Zellige Border where a simpler tile pattern is wanted above or below. Rooms that already carry pattern in the rugs and cushions take it best: a study, a dining room, a snug hung to the ceiling.
