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Lot Essay
This is a rare survival of Safavid craftsmanship of the earliest period. The hilt of this dagger is of black jade inlaid with an overall design of gold arabesques, but the blade and sheath are Turkish and 19th century in date. Very few objects exist with which to compare the present piece, but the closest and most impressive is a black jade jug in the Topkapi Saray Museum (1844) inscribed with the name of Shah Isma'il (Canby, S.: The Golden Age of Persian Art, London, 1999, fig.14, p.27). The body of this jug is covered with the same type of spiraling arabesques as the dagger handle. In 15th century ornament, the arabesque is subordinate to the inscriptions or other ornamental motifs which are laid on top of them. In the jug the inscription is contained within cartouches in a band on the mouth and the arabesque decoration is the dominant motif.
This feature of a large expanse of elegantly drawn arabesques is to be seen on the outstanding building of the period, the Harun-i Vilayat in Isfahan which was completed in 1512. Here the arabesques are rendered in tile mosaic in the spandrels in gold on blue ground. (Canby, op.cit, fig.13, pp.26-8)
The jug is assumed to have entered the Ottoman treasury after the battle of Chaldiran, when the conquering Turkish army took a huge booty back to Istanbul. It is tempting to asume that this little dagger was a part of the war loot. Along with the booty, the Ottomans took a thousand artisans with them to their capital. The Ottoman aesthetic was hugely influenced as a result and their craftsmen began to inlay gold into hardstones and ivory, producing in the mid sixteenth century some memorable weapons and other objets d'art.
This feature of a large expanse of elegantly drawn arabesques is to be seen on the outstanding building of the period, the Harun-i Vilayat in Isfahan which was completed in 1512. Here the arabesques are rendered in tile mosaic in the spandrels in gold on blue ground. (Canby, op.cit, fig.13, pp.26-8)
The jug is assumed to have entered the Ottoman treasury after the battle of Chaldiran, when the conquering Turkish army took a huge booty back to Istanbul. It is tempting to asume that this little dagger was a part of the war loot. Along with the booty, the Ottomans took a thousand artisans with them to their capital. The Ottoman aesthetic was hugely influenced as a result and their craftsmen began to inlay gold into hardstones and ivory, producing in the mid sixteenth century some memorable weapons and other objets d'art.