Decorative tile “Arab Dance”

The relief on the square, glazed tile depicts three men dancing with their arms raised, against a light grey background. A fourth man, on the left, plays a flute. The figures are dressed in traditional Arab attire: floor-length robes, colored here in yellow and blue, and keffiyeh scarves wrapped around their heads. At the top, there is a hole from which the decorative tile can be hung.

Ceramicist Eva Samuel designed this tile at the “Kad ve-Sefel” Pottery in Rishon le-Zion. Samuel had left the Ruhr district for Palestine in 1932. In 1934, she founded the “Kad ve- Sefel” workshop with fellow ceramicist Paula Ahronson, who had likewise emigrated from Germany. In addition to ceramics for everyday use, Eva Samuel also produced wall reliefs and decorative tiles for public and private spaces. For example, four of her large reliefs from a tiled wall were exhibited in the Palestine Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair of 1939.