A MAMLUK SILVER INLAID BRONZE DISH

PROBABLY SYRIA, MID-15TH CENTURY

Details

A MAMLUK SILVER INLAID BRONZE DISH
PROBABLY SYRIA, MID-15TH CENTURY
The shallow saucer shaped dish with a central roundel containing a rosette surrounded by fish, in a broad border band of thuluth dedicatory inscriptions divided by stylised leafy trees surmounted by engraved paired birds, slight loss of silver, remains of three suspension holes, slight surface corrosion
6in. (16.5cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

The inscriptions translate:
"Of what was made for al-Mu'allim (the master) 'Ali al-Balqawi, may [God] grant him pardon".

The design of this dish is most unusual within the normal Mamluk repertoire. The trees which divide the inscriptions seem very Persian in origin. However, similar but rather more contorted trees can be seen on the lower registers of a ewer made for the wife of Sultan Qaitbay (1472-96) (Ward, Rachel: Islamic Metalwork, London, 1993, pl.94, p.118).

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