Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs & Carpets
Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs & Carpets
A TIMURID TINNED BRONZE JUG, PERSIA, EARLY 15TH CENTURY
Auction Closed
June 10, 06:00 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A TIMURID TINNED BRONZE JUG, PERSIA, EARLY 15TH CENTURY
the bronze body of squat globular form with straight cylindrical neck, finely incised with two lines of cursive calligrpahy on body interspersed by roundels containing entwined split-palmettes, further inscriptions above and knotted-Kufic calligraphy engraved with a floral band against a cross-hatched ground
17cm. height
inscriptions
Around the shoulder, partly written in Arabic and Persian: ‘Glory to our lord, the most Great Sultan and the most Generous, the Learned, the Diligent, the Just, the one supported (by God), the guardian of the time’
In the lobed roundel on the neck: a saying attributed, here, to the Prophet: ‘Prophet, peace be upon him said: Powerful is the one who is content and contemptible is he, who is greedy’
The three cartouches in the narrow lower band around the body: a couplet in Persian (not fully deciphered) and a worn text: ‘Work of (?) Sha’ban ibn ‘Umar …., O Lord, forgive my sin’
The inscriptions on the narrow band around the collar and around the neck with heavily knotted Kufic: undeciphered.
For an example of such unusual knotted Kufic on a candlestick attributed to Fars, second-half fifteenth century, see Melikian-Chirvani 1982, p.235, fig.60. The abrupt transformation of the Arabic inscription around the shoulder into Persian demonstrates a possible change in commissioner, which makes it particularly interesting.
The form of vessel is related to a group of cast metal jugs produced in Persia in the second half of the fifteenth century, although the present example is larger. Known as mashrabe, these examples and the present lot were most probably intended as drinking cups, in this case further clarified by the multiple references to 'Ab' (water), and allusion to the life-giving qualities of the beverage. For similar form, see Lentz and Lowry 1989, p.144, no.46, and a further discussion of the evolution of this group, notably in Timurid Persia, see Linda Komaroff, The Golden Disc of Heaven, Metalwork of Timurid Iran, 1992.
The present example is particularly interesting as its decoration can be directly linked to Mamluk motifs, just as another ewer with a typical Timurid form but Mamluk-style deocration in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, inv. no. 11.53 (S. Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam and Mahmud the Kurd: A Metalworking enigma, London, 2004, p.64, pl. 24).