A LARGE FATIMID BRONZE LAMPSTAND
A LARGE FATIMID BRONZE LAMPSTAND

EGYPT, LATE 10TH/FIRST HALF 11TH CENTURY

Details
A LARGE FATIMID BRONZE LAMPSTAND
EGYPT, LATE 10TH/FIRST HALF 11TH CENTURY
Heavily cast in three parts, the shallow domed base with three hoof feet rising to the separate stem with central cylindrical element flanked by two spherical bosses, the top flaring to support the separate circular tray with lightly raised border, old damages
26¼in. (66.7cm.) high; tray 16¼in. (41.2cm.) diam.

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Romain Pingannaud
Romain Pingannaud

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Lot Essay


A very similar lampstand was part of a Fatimid hoard excavated in Caesaria which can be dated between the end of the 10th and the first half of the 11th century. Although lacking its tray, the lampstand shows an identical structure. In their discussion of this group of pieces, Ayala Lester, Yael D. Arnon and Rachel Polak describe them with a dome-shaped base, a heavy shaft and flat tray and a significant height (50 to 60cm.) and mass (The Fatimid hoard of Caesaria: a preliminary report, in Marianne Barrucand (dir.), L'Égypte fatimide, son art et son histoire, Paris, 1999, p. 238-9, fig.3a).

This lampstand can also be compared with three other pieces, all of which are engraved with more decoration. One with hexagonal base is in the Islamic Museum in Cairo (Gaston Wiet, Catalogue général du musée arabe du Caire, objets en cuivre, Cairo, 1984 reprint, no.8483, pl.XXV), while the others, with the circular base as found here, are in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (Marilyn Jenkins (ed.), Islamic Art in the Kuwait National Museum, London, 1983, p.66) and the David Collection, Copenhagen (Kjeld von Folsach, Art from the World of Islam in the David Collection, Copenhagen, 2001, no.460, p.299).
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