Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
Auction Closed
March 30, 12:47 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
bridle of reddish brown leather lined with red silk, brow-band, head and cheek-pieces faced with interlocking 23-carat gold and silver plaques in a repeating two silver-one gold order, neck-band and attachment decorated with gold roundels and a gold plaque decorated with a flowerhead, throat latch of braided silk and metallic thread; breastplate decorated with a ridged gold boss, the other end with a gold medallion
2
bridle 58cm.; breastplate 88cm.
Four related Ottoman bridles with embossed roundels and medallions dated to the seventeenth century are in the Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, published in Die Karlsruher Türkenbeute, Munich, 1991, pp.144-155. These bridles feature silver-gilt decoration, however, rather than gold on the present example (see nos.73, 74, 75 and 76). See also D. Alexander, Furusiyya, The King Abdulaziz Public Centre, Druckhaus Grasl, 1996, vol.II, p.90, figs.76-77.
Three further Ottoman bridles with gold and silver, displaying elaborate and more overtly 'Ottoman' motifs, are in the Moscow Kremlin Museums (see The Tsars and the East - Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., 2009, pp.84-91), while others can be found in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, (see H. Schuckelt, Die Türckische Cammer, Dresden, 2010, pp.296, no.285; pp.302-3, nos.298-9).
The fact that 23-carat gold has been used on the bridle and breastplate to hand suggests they were produced for a high-ranking individual, and a rarity to have survived to the present day.
