Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 51*
A Fars silver inlaid brass Candlestick Base Persia, 14th Century
8 April 2014, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£40,000 - £60,000
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A Fars silver inlaid brass Candlestick Base
Persia, 14th Century
Persia, 14th Century
cylindrical with slightly incurving sides, the base and shoulder with raised chevron bands, brass inlaid with silver and incised decoration, the main register of decoration with three bands of foliage joined by palmettes, the central frieze with inscriptions and four almond-shaped medallions containing seated musicians, the two outer borders with pursuant animals, inscribed on the inside: "N6032, so0490"
19.3 cm. high; 21.8 cm. diam.
19.3 cm. high; 21.8 cm. diam.
Footnotes
Provenance:
Private collection;
Acquired Christie's, Ancienne Collection Charles Gillot (1853 - 1903), Paris, 4th - 5th March 2008, lot 9, where the provenance states that the piece was first listed in an account book of Charles Gillot on 12th April 1899 and had been acquired the same month from Raoul Duseigneur in Paris (1845-1916).
Inscriptions: al-'izz wa al-iqbal dama wa al-baqa laka ayyuha al-mawla al-kabir al-sha'n wa al-majd wa al-nasr al-mujaddad khalid al-'alaka ya dha'l-fadl wa'l-ihsan 'izz yadum, "May glory and prosperity be eternal and long life for you, O Lord of great authority and grandeur and [may there be] renewed victory, [may] your superiority be everlasting O the one who possesses excellence and generosity, may glory be ever-lasting".
Another candlestick base similar to the present lot in both form and decoration, and dated AH 708/ AD 1308, is published by Pope (Arthur Upham Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, London and New York, 1938, Vol. VI, pl. 1355); this same candlestick was later published in an exhibition catalogue for an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (L. Komaroff and S. Carboni, The Legacy of Genghis Khan, Courtly Art and Western Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 129, fig. 154), formerly in the Stora collection and now at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. The Boston piece shares the same unworked surface areas, of which Pope writes (and certainly could apply to the present lot) : "Its admirable restraint stands in sharp contrast to the confused patterns which were then in favour, and proves that some masters, at least, could rid themselves of the dominant taste for fireworks, and achieve dignity by omitting what is unnecessary. The composition owes nothing to outside influences, and is carefully planned, the drawing sensitive, the inlay applied with discrimination. As on 12th Century pieces, large blank surfaces of metal form part of the design, and serve the double purpose of resting the eye and setting off the beauty of the ornament. This anonymous masterpiece shows the art of the period at its best" (Pope 1938, Vol. III, p. 2505). A second example was in Pope's personal collection (Pope 1938, Vol. VI, pl. 1356).