It is well known that the patterns for the Ruckers decorative papers were taken from Renaissance pattern books (Pellegrino 1530, Sylvius 1554) which in turn had taken patterns from Islamic sources. I was in the British Museum last week and noticed this green and black tile from Iran or Central Asia, ca. 1450-1490. It struck me how similar it was to some of the ‘Ruckers’ patterns, such as this one (no. 8 in O’Brien, or ‘Little Mask’ in The Paris Workshop catalogue).
