SYRIA, 12TH CENTURY

The form of this belt buckle is very similar to that of the silver-gilt buckle which together with the other belt fittings forms lot 469 in this sale. In contrast however to all the other pieces mentioned in the note to that lot, the present buckle is very restrained in its decoration. The only motif is one which was obviously very popular in 13th century Syria being found on various items including unglazed pottery (a fragment of a pilgrim bottle in New York: Ettinghausen, Richard et al.: Islamische Kunst, Meisterwerke aus dem Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, exhibition catalogue, Berlin, 1981, no.51, pp.136-137), a spectacular glazed fragment in the Keir Collection (Grube, Ernst J.: Islamic Pottery of the Eighth to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976, no.216, p.272, ill.p.248), and a Lakabi dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.605). The motif dates back to the Fatimid period and probably before, appearing on a lustre dish and many other places (Grube, op.cit., no.89, p.137, ill.facing p.136).