A rts of the Islamic World & India, which takes place in London on 27 October, celebrates the achievements of artists and craftsmen from the Islamic world over 1000 years, offering a broad array of high quality works of art.
| Friday 22 October | 09.00-16.30 BST |
| Saturday 23 October | 12.00-17.00 BST |
| Sunday 24 October | 12.00-17.00 BST |
| Monday 25 October | 09.00-16.30 BST |
| Tuesday 26 October | 09.00-16.30 BST |
Highlights include a magnificent silver and gold brass candlestick attributed to Mosul circa 1275, two unique Mughal spectacles set with emerald and diamond lenses respectively, created in the seventeenth century, a richly decorated Qur’an juz’ from the thirteenth century as well as an important Safavid silk and metal thread ‘Polonaise’ rug with a distinguished provenance.
Further notable works include the largest known Iznik pottery ‘grape’ dish from circa 1530, an oil portrait of Roxelana, Suleyman the Magnificent’s renowned wife, and scientific instruments, including an astrolabe signed by Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Battuti and a Mughal engraved brass celestial globe from the famed Lahore workshop of the seventeenth century.
Surpassing the imagination, the following two pairs of spectacles, set with emerald and diamond lenses, were originally conceived from gemstones that would have weighed over 300 and 200 carats respectively. The origin of the emeralds can be traced all the way to the Muzo mines of Colombia, whereas the diamond lenses most probably came from the famous Golconda mines of Southern India.
These represent not only a technical feat in their cleavage, but also extraordinary boldness and invention, one which is also rooted in tradition. These two extraordinary pairs of spectacles, have never before appeared on the market but have been the focus of a multitude of scholarly research. The following catalogue note will draw on information gleaned from detailed scientific and historical analyses to understand their conception and production.
One can tell that this was prestigious object by its generous use of silver inlay heightened by details in gold, and by its courtly iconography, but also in the inherent status of candles in this period. Beeswax candles were expensive items eight centuries ago in both the Middle East and Europe and played an important role in courtly ceremonies.
The present candlestick is one of the largest and most imposing examples of a distinct family of facetted candlesticks produced in the Jazira in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and the fine condition of its silver and gold inlays make it a sumptuously radiant object.
The candlestick is covered with benedictory inscriptions wishing perpetual glory, a safe life, increasing prosperity and perfect good-fortune, dominant command, generosity, agreeable wealth, safe good-fortune and increasing prosperity. Note the anthropomorphic nature in which the script was written.
It is one of very few with large-scale figural decoration, and the only one to have a continuous frieze around the body. The frieze provides scope for a parade of soldiers and courtiers, twenty-seven around its body, its neck and shoulder with eleven standing courtiers, and its socket with nine seated musicians, including two who play a tambourine suggesting strongly that this was a courtly commission.
