India’s Taj Mahal is one of the world’s greatest monuments to love. Our Shah cover is named for the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who commissioned the grand mausoleum to house the tomb of his most favoured wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It reproduces a photograph by Gérard Degeorge of one of the Taj Mahal’s iconic marble flowers.
In the ivory-white marbled walls of India’s emblematic monument lie these beautifully carved floral designs.
Photographed by Gérard Degeorge, these unique marble carvings capture the breathtaking construction and exquisiteness of one of the world’s greatest structures, the Taj Mahal.
Intriguing in its unique nature, the Taj Mahal is adorned both inside and out with these marbled flowers. Special in their specific colours and form, the decorations are incrustations of precious or semiprecious stones according to the technique known as “pietra dura,” a Florentine practice consisting of inlaid stones in a stone background.
In Islamic culture, flowers are often seen as symbols of Paradise; the Kingdom of God.
To carve into marble is to commit to perfection. Any mistake meant the whole stone slab had to be discarded. In reproducing one of Gérard Degeorge’s photographs of the famous monument, this cover celebrates these precious marble masterpieces. This Shah design takes its name from the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan who reigned from 1628 to 1658 and commissioned the building of the Taj Mahal in 1623 to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mumtaz.