PROBABLY NORTH PERSIA, 13TH-14TH CENTURY

The geometry of the interlace on this door is deceptively complex. It is underlaid by thin bands forming a star-and-cross design which is then mostly covered and disguised by interlaced arabesques. The arabesque interlace is reminiscent of that used on the corner columns of a cenotaph from fourteenth century Mazanderan sold in these Rooms in a series of sales early in the last decade (23 April 1991, lots 77 and 78 for example). The delicacy of the scrollwork threading through the inscription in the upper panel is also remarkable; in places it appears to have been made from a different piece of wood which has been threaded through the lettering. The form of the kufic could indicate a slightly earlier dating than the fourteenth century. It has characteristics of North East Persia and Afghanistan of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.