Lot Essay
The inscription on the door's interior reads mimma 'umora bi-ra[sm] 'ali al-dawari shahr rabi' al-awwal sana 857(?) (One of the things made for 'Ali al-Dawari in the month of Rabi' I, the year 857 (1452-53 AD?))
The beautifully drawn medallions displayed on this cabinet closely relate to Mamluk architectural ornamentation. The walls of the mosque of Aqsunqur and the madrasa of Sarghitmish in Cairo, each dating from the middle of the 14th century, or a wooden door from the mosque of Barquq, dated 1386, show very similar medallions sometimes bordered with inscriptions (Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Cairo of the Mamluks, London, 2007, p. 189, fig. 143 & p. 199, fig. 159 and Gaston Wiet, Les bois à épigraphes, Cairo, 1936, inv. no. 1624, pl. X). Although the technique of applied painted cloth is uncommon, as is lacquer, the thick black lines of the geometric decoration can be paralleled with that of a series of 14th or 15th Mamluk lacquer boxes, one of which sold in these Rooms, October 17, 1995, lot 269.
The beautifully drawn medallions displayed on this cabinet closely relate to Mamluk architectural ornamentation. The walls of the mosque of Aqsunqur and the madrasa of Sarghitmish in Cairo, each dating from the middle of the 14th century, or a wooden door from the mosque of Barquq, dated 1386, show very similar medallions sometimes bordered with inscriptions (Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Cairo of the Mamluks, London, 2007, p. 189, fig. 143 & p. 199, fig. 159 and Gaston Wiet, Les bois à épigraphes, Cairo, 1936, inv. no. 1624, pl. X). Although the technique of applied painted cloth is uncommon, as is lacquer, the thick black lines of the geometric decoration can be paralleled with that of a series of 14th or 15th Mamluk lacquer boxes, one of which sold in these Rooms, October 17, 1995, lot 269.