MAMLUK SYRIA, LATE 15TH CENTURY

A slightly larger bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum is of almost identical form and decoration to our bowl, (inv. 1686-1889, Sylvia Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam and Mahmud the Kurd. A Metalworking Enigma, 2004, no. 4.1, p. 208), Auld compares the bowl in the Victoria and Albert museum to a basin made for the Mamluk Sultan Qai't Bay (r. 1468-1496), in the Turk ve Islam Eserleri Muzesi (TIEM) in Istanbul, (S. S. Blair and J. Bloom, The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800, New York, 1994, fig. 142, p. 111). Our bowl probably also dates to the late 15th Century, however the European-style blazons engraved and inlaid on the side of this bowl indicate that it was destined for export to Europe.