A Safavid engraved brass torchstand, Persia, late 16th century

In the cartouches around the top, a ghazal by Katebi Torshiz:

On that night when Thy Moonface became the lamp of our solitude

The candle melted unable to bear the fire of our companionship

The moment Thou throw the veil from

Thy moon-like Face

Will be the sunrise of our happiness

Around the body, a cartouche with the name of the owner, 'Ali Khan Ardabili, and Persian verses: 

I remember one night as my eyes wouldn’t close

I heard the butterfly tell the candle

I am stricken with love, if I burn ‘tis but right

But you why do you weep, why burn yourself out?

Around the foot, a quatrain by Ahli Turshizi:

The Lamp of the Lucid I see brightened by Your Face

All those who have a soul I see their souls turned towards You

You O Sultan of the World: may not one hair fall from Your Head

For I see the World – a thread of a single hair from Your Head

This cylindrical lamp-stand bears close resemblance to a group of larger Safavid Sham’dans, some of which are discussed by S. Canby in Shah ‘Abbas, The Remaking of Iran, London, 2009, pp.84-7, cat.47-49. These new forms of lighting appliances appeared in Iran in the early sixteenth century. The upper flange allowed to support a domical cover which, when flipped, could serve as an oil reservoir (see Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. no.790-1901). The pieces from this group present a common repertoire of decorative motifs, consisting of vegetal ornaments and Persian lyrical verses in nasta’liq separated by bands and ribs. Although the resemblance of these stands blurs their chronology, the cross-hatched and blackened background of the present torch-stand is akin to a range of Safavid items precisely dated between the 1560s and 1580s (Loukonine and Ivanov 1996, cat. no.203). This allows us to assign this stand to the same period, alongside another in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. no.IR 2202, published in Loukonine and Ivanov 1996, cat. no.203 and Canby 2009, p.85, no.47) and another in the collection of Hussein Afshar (published in Canby 2009, p.86, no.48 and Melikian-Chirvani 2007, p.376, no.136).

It is interesting to note that the love poem (ghazal) by Katibi Torshizi around the top of our stand also figures on the Hermitage example as well as on two pieces in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no.790-1901 and 1526-1903, published in Melikian-Chirvani 1982, pp.312-5, nos.140 and 141) while the lower quatrain can be read on another stand in the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no.M17-1931, published in Melikian-Chirvani 1982, pp.326-6, no.148), attributed to Western Iran, early seventeenth century. Both quatrains are also on a larger similar torch stand sold in these rooms, 10 June 2020, lot 112, which bears an Armenian date of 1027 AH/1578 AD and another sold at Christie’s, 15 December, 2005, lot 381. Another close example of similar dimensions is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. no.91.1.579), and presents a variation of "The Moth and the Candle" verses by the thirteenth-century poet Sa‘di. These similarities point towards a traditional use of particular poetic excerpts from the time, with the metaphor of love as fire and light ostensibly referring to the items’ functions, but most importantly carrying mystical Sufi connotations. These poems are hymns to God, in which the allegory of the divine light is reinforced by the lamp medium, meant to attract believers the same way they are drawn to their Maker. Many of these lampstands were in fact known to have been donated to important Shi’i shrines (Canby 2009 p.85).