A FARS SILVER AND GOLD INLAID BRASS BOWL with rounded sides and inturned rim, the exterior engraved with a band of oval cartouches containing spiralling tendrils around elegantly worked elongated naskh honorific inscriptions alternating with roundels depicting mounted huntsmen, the spandrels filled with diaper pattern, a band of interlaced arcading below, the interior with a central sun motif flanked by concentric bands of fish, one band also with six ducks, second half 14th century (slight denting, little inlay remaining)

Details
A FARS SILVER AND GOLD INLAID BRASS BOWL with rounded sides and inturned rim, the exterior engraved with a band of oval cartouches containing spiralling tendrils around elegantly worked elongated naskh honorific inscriptions alternating with roundels depicting mounted huntsmen, the spandrels filled with diaper pattern, a band of interlaced arcading below, the interior with a central sun motif flanked by concentric bands of fish, one band also with six ducks, second half 14th century (slight denting, little inlay remaining)
7¼in. (18.5cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

The inscriptions read:
'birasmi al-janab al-sultan al-'azam al-a , a[l]-malik riqab al-umam al-'alim , al-'adil al-malik al-mamalika , al-mu'ayyad al-samam(?) al-mansur ala [a]l-'adwa alaa(sic)'
which can be translated:
'to the order of his excellency the sultan, the great posessor of the necks of the people, the king of the kings, he who is supported [by God] .... he who is victorious over the enemy'.

This bowl is of very similar form to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Melikian-Chirvani, no.95, p.204). Both have inscription cartouches divided by four roundels containing mounted horsemen. The present example differs most from that in that the horsemen here are wearing crowns while those in the Victoria and Albert have the more customary taj headdress found in depictions of this period.

Melikian-Chirvani, A.S.: Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, London 1982

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