Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 119
An engraved Safavid copper lidded Bowl Persia, 17th Century
23 April 2013, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £125 inc. premium
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An engraved Safavid copper lidded Bowl
Persia, 17th Century
Persia, 17th Century
the lid of typical domed form, with ridged shoulder leading to flat finial, decorated with champleve designs in three registers, the lower with peonies enclosed within a series of arches, the middle with a wavy chain pattern intercepted with lobed cartouches, and the upper with inscriptions separated by roundels, traces of gilding, the bowl plain with Armenian inscription to rim
14 cm. high (including lid)
14 cm. high (including lid)
Footnotes
Inscriptions: the Armenian inscription to rim: "This is in memory of the Cypriot priest Sarkis who died young from the faithful people of Tokat to the Holy Sepulchre" / "Kevork son of Lazurus"; the Arabic inscription to lid reads:
'li-sahibihi al-sa'adat (sic) wa al-salama / wa tul al-'umr ma nahat hamama / wa 'izz al-da'im la zala fihu / wa iqbal ila yawm al-qiyama'; "To its owner be happiness and well-being and long life as long as doves coo and perpetual glory that will not diminish and prosperity up to the day of judgement".
Similar phrases are found on 15th Century vessels, for example, see A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8-18th Centuries, 1982, pp. 245, 249 and 255.
Safavid wares with Armenian inscriptions and/or Arabic inscriptions, which are integrated into the decoration, as with our example, form a special group. Their stylistic diversity suggests there were different schools producing such wares.
A dome-shaped cover in the Victoria and Albert Museum (411.1880) can be dated according to Melikian-Chirvani to the early reign of Shah 'Abbas (Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Century, London, 1982, p. 273, pl. 160) and forms part of what he calls the Amenian-Safavid court style.