It includes Oriental pile-carpets from the Middle East, Iranian ceramics and metals, Turkish ceramics and textiles, ceramics from Mudejar Spain, and smaller groups of objects from Ayyubid Syria, Fatimid and Mamluk Egypt and Mughal India. These Islamic objects range in date from the 10th to the 19th centuries AD, and were purchased over a lifetime of collecting, beginning in the last decades of the 19th century and ending in June 1957, some nine months before Sir William’s death.
We have published references from 1901 mentioning Sir William lending some of his Islamic items for display in public exhibitions.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album “The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the Collections of Great Britain” (Volume XLVI) in the series "Сultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections".
The main sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.