Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 73R
A Mamluk brass basin Egypt or Syria, 15th Century
12 November 2024, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £25,000
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A Mamluk brass basin
Egypt or Syria, 15th Century
Egypt or Syria, 15th Century
of rounded multifaceted form, the sides tapering towards a vertical flattened rim, the sides profusely engraved and decorated with rosettes and cartouches containing geometric and split-palmette interlace interspersed by inscription-filled cartouches, all on a ground of foliate interlace, above a band of foliate scrollwork, the underside with a cusped lattice containing flowerheads and vegetal interlace, the interior with a roundel to the well containing concentric circles and a band of vegetal interlace
37.5 cm. diam.
37.5 cm. diam.
Footnotes
Inscriptions: the repeat of al-maqarr al-'ali, 'The High authority'.
The present lot displays the complex decorative language typical of the late flowering of Mamluk metalwork towards the end of the 15th Century. The division into compartments, filled with designs or inscriptions, is a recurrent theme of Royal Mamluk metalwork of the time. Other examples of bowls displaying this scheme are a basin dedicated to Qaytbay in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, a basin dedicated to Nasir al-Din Sidi Muhammad, son of Saif al-Din Uzbak, Atabek of Qaytbay, in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. no. 206-1892) and a bowl in the M.C. Collection (see Melikian Chirvani, 'Cuivres Inedits de l'Epoque de Qa'itbay', Kunst des Orients, Vol.6, H.2, 1969, pp. 99-133). For comparable basins sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 25 October 2021, lot 74, and 29 March 2022, lot 70.
Important Notice to Buyers
Some countries, e.g., the US, prohibit or restrict the purchase by its citizens (wherever located) and/or the import of certain types of works of particular origins. As a convenience to buyers, Bonhams has marked with the symbol R all lots of Iranian (Persian) and Syrian origin. It is each buyer's responsibility to ensure that they do not bid on or import a lot in contravention of the sanctions or trade embargoes that apply to them.