NORTH EAST IRAN, PUNJAB OR HINDUSTAN, LATE 12TH OR EARLY 13TH CENTURY

A larger silver inlaid bronze dish in the David Collection shares many feastures with the present small dish (Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001, no.487, pp.308-9). The central roundel there, as here, depicts a war elephant with warriors on its back. There also the band around the cavetto has a procession of mounted warriors on horseback very similar to those forming the border here. And the band of running animals around the edge of the present dish also form the design around the rim of the David Collection example. All three elements are also found on a casket now in the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar. Like both the present dish and the Copenhagen example it is very heavily made and has prominent elephants in the main panel, and a band of continuous combat, this time on foot, around the lid. Bands of running animals enclose the main panels on the body. All three items also have unusually crowded decorative repertoires. For iconographic reasons the Qatar casket has been attributed to the Punjab or Hindustan, which is therefore a possible alternative attribution to Khorassan for the present dish.