Lot 292

A group of pressed glass Medallions
Central Asia, late 12th Century
(7)

Islamic & Indian Art

29 April 2004, 10:30 BST

London, New Bond Street

£5,000 - £7,000

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A group of pressed glass Medallions
Central Asia, late 12th Century

one large, amber-coloured, circular, with a central figures of a seated lute player surrounded by an inscription in naskhi, “The Pillar of State and Religion, the Emir in Chief, Champion of the World, ‘Umar ibn al-Husayn Nusra, The Help of the Commander of the Believers”, 9.5 cm. diam.; a large dark bluish-green glass Medallion, also with a seated lute player but from a slightly different mould and surrounded by a largely indecipherable inscription that starts with the same titles, 9.5 cm.; an olive-green glass Medallion with a mounted falconer holding a falcon in his left hand, another bird behind his head and a dog chasing a hare below the horse’s legs, 8.5 cm. diam; a Medallion with an elephant being attacked by another animal on its trunk, the colour of the glass obscured by weathering, 6.9 cm. diam.; a smaller Medallion with an eagle attacking a hare, 6 cm. diam..; and two small Medallions with the same design, one in brownish purple and the other in iridescent amber glass, with a bird of prey, its wings outsplayed and legs stretched, inscribed in naskhi, “Khusraw Malik” for Taj al-Dawla Khusraw Malik ibn Khusraw Shah (r. 1160-96), the last Ghazanavid ruler
the largest 5.9 cm. diam.(7)

Footnotes

These medallions belong to a distinctive group of roughly circular flat discs with impressed decoration left in low relief on one side and plain on the reverse. Around sixty to seventy examples are known with motifs adapted from Sasanian iconography, while those with dedicatory inscriptions identify them with the late 12th Century Ghaznavid and Ghurid rulers of what is now modern Afghanistan. They were probably secured into plaster frames and used to decorate the windows of palaces of in Ghazna, the capital, and other important cities. For a full discussion cf. Stefano Carboni, Glass from Islamic Lands (London 2001), pp. 272-8 and Stefano Carboni and David Whitehouse, Glass of the Sultans (New Haven and London 2001), pp. 133-5.

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- Islamic and Indian Art

A group of pressed glass Medallions Central Asia, late 12th Century (7)

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A group of pressed glass Medallions Central Asia, late 12th Century

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A group of pressed glass Medallions
Central Asia, late 12th Century
(7)

A group of pressed glass Medallions
Central Asia, late 12th Century