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Lot Essay
This is very close in size and style to the inlaid bronze ball-joint inlaid in gold and silver formerly in the Hariri Collection, which has a dedicatory inscription in the name of the Ilkhanid ruler Muhammad Uljaitu Khudabanda (r. 1304-1316, Arthur U. Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford 1938 pl.1357A). Both have on one side the same sequence of roundel with swastika pattern on a four-lobed figure containing foliate arabesques, within a roundel with a round of T-fret patterns. The Hariri example has however two incomplete projecting sockets lacking here. There is another ball-joint also inlaid with gold and silver in the Aron Collection that is similar in size and style (James Allan, Metalwork of the Islamic World, the Aron Collection, London 1986, no.34, p.130f.) This has retained two incomplete and one complete sockets. The Hariri Collection is known to have posessed two further examples, also apparently with the name of Uljaitu Khudabanda.
This example differs in one major aspect from the others mentioned. While they are all cast, and must have been integral to the structure of the grille, this example is of hammered thin sheet metal which would not have taken any strain. It raises the possibility that the window grille (for stylistically this could easily have come from the same grille as the other four) contained minor non-structural bosses as well as the main examples. Alternatively this was used as a sheath to cover an existing cast but plain boss.
A further inlaid window grille boss from that same group but with less silver inlay remaining than our present example was sold at Sotheby's, 6 October 2010, lot 164.
This example differs in one major aspect from the others mentioned. While they are all cast, and must have been integral to the structure of the grille, this example is of hammered thin sheet metal which would not have taken any strain. It raises the possibility that the window grille (for stylistically this could easily have come from the same grille as the other four) contained minor non-structural bosses as well as the main examples. Alternatively this was used as a sheath to cover an existing cast but plain boss.
A further inlaid window grille boss from that same group but with less silver inlay remaining than our present example was sold at Sotheby's, 6 October 2010, lot 164.