SPAIN, CIRCA 1000

Details

A CALIPHAL OR TAIFA PERIOD REPOUSSE SILVER BRACELET
SPAIN, CIRCA 1000
Of circular form with central hinge and two lion-head terminals linked by a pin, the exterior of each worked with a band of linked roundels issuing split leaves containing a variety of animals and birds in confronted pairs, within simple reeded borders, hinge and terminals slightly damaged
45/8in. (10.9cm.) diam.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

This bracelet bears a number of pointers to its manufacture in the occidental Islamic world. The scrollwork around the animals, with the elegant simple return scrolling leaves filling each spandrel are comparable to those on a small number of Spanish metal items such as a mortar in the Balaguer Museum (see the band around the base), the stem of a lampstand in Valencia and an oil lamp in Granada (Gómez-Moreno, Manuel: "El Arte Español hasta los Almohades, Arte Mozarabe", Ars Hispaniae III, Madrid, 1951, figs.389, 390 and 394). The heads that form the terminals are also very closely related to the same group of metal objects, being found in almost identical form on the legs of a bronze vessel found at Elvira (Gómez-Moreno, op.cit., fig.391). These close similarities would indicate a date of the late caliphal or early taifa period for this bracelet.

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