Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 27R
A Khorasan silver-inlaid bronze pen box Persia, 12th/ 13th Century
22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£4,000 - £6,000
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A Khorasan silver-inlaid bronze pen box
Persia, 12th/ 13th Century
Persia, 12th/ 13th Century
of tapering rectangular form, engraved and decorated in silver inlay, the top and base with vegetal interlace, the top surmounted by an openwork mihrab aperture, the sides with bands of inscription, the lid surmounted by a suspension loop
21.8 cm. long
21.8 cm. long
Footnotes
Provenance
Bonhams, Islamic & Indian Art, 16 October 2003, lot 306.
Inscriptions: al-'izz wa al-iqbal wa al-dawlah wa al-salamah wa al-sa'adah wa al-dawamah wa... wa al-'afiyah wa al-shifa'ah wa al-rahah wa al-birr wa ... wa ... wa al-qina'ah wa ... al-rahmah wa al-kifayah wa al-ma, 'Glory and prosperity and wealth and well-being and happiness and endurance and...and health and (Prophet's) intercession and ease and piety and...and....contentment and...mercy and sufficiency and...'
Pen boxes of this type were probably suspended from a scribe's belt (see Eva Baer, Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art, New York, 1983, pp. 69- 70, fig. 49). For a similar penbox sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 25 October 2021, lot 57.
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.