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Lot Essay
The inscriptions around this candlestick are verses from the Gulestan of Sa'di. Please refer to A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Centuries, 1982, p.309, for the same verses.
This remarkable shamdan appears to be the only published example with an openwork shaft. There is no functional reason that a pierced shaft should not exist, but it is a decorative technique more frequently associated with Timurid bronze or Safavid steel. A number of 15th or early 16th century braziers are known which are pierced with split leaf palmettes, typical of Timurid ornament. A particularly fine example is published in Pope, attributed by him to the late 15th/early 16th century (A.U.Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, vol.VI, Oxford, 1938, pl.1379A). Another, which is catalogued as being from either Iran or the Deccan, and dated to the 15th century, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv.no.1988.293, Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, no.142, p.122). Like our shamdan the Metropolitan brazier had a design based on a quatrefoil motif issuing palmettes. The design of the brazier also has thin lines engraved in the design, as if in preparation for inlay. A Safavid cut steel panel, again with a very similar quatrefoil motif is in the Freer Gallery (Esin Atil, W.T.Chase and Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1985, no.29, p.197).
In his work on Iranian metalwork, A.S. Melikian Chirvani, writes that it is in the middle period of Shah Tahmasp's reign that the pillar candlestick emerged as a form. He writes that the earliest dated example on record is preserved in the Astan-e Qods in Mashhad, and was made in Lahore in 1539. Melikiani-Chirvani suggests that because nothing in its appearance suggests the influence of India, the shamdan can instead be assumed to be the work of an Iranian, probably Khorassani, artist working in Lahore, probably in the entourage of Homayun (A.S.Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World. 8th-18th Centuries, London, 1982, p.263). Our shamdan - which bears a later owner's inscription of AH 988/1580-81 AD, and thus a terminus ante quem - is therefore amongst the earliest examples of the form.
This remarkable shamdan appears to be the only published example with an openwork shaft. There is no functional reason that a pierced shaft should not exist, but it is a decorative technique more frequently associated with Timurid bronze or Safavid steel. A number of 15th or early 16th century braziers are known which are pierced with split leaf palmettes, typical of Timurid ornament. A particularly fine example is published in Pope, attributed by him to the late 15th/early 16th century (A.U.Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, vol.VI, Oxford, 1938, pl.1379A). Another, which is catalogued as being from either Iran or the Deccan, and dated to the 15th century, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv.no.1988.293, Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, no.142, p.122). Like our shamdan the Metropolitan brazier had a design based on a quatrefoil motif issuing palmettes. The design of the brazier also has thin lines engraved in the design, as if in preparation for inlay. A Safavid cut steel panel, again with a very similar quatrefoil motif is in the Freer Gallery (Esin Atil, W.T.Chase and Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1985, no.29, p.197).
In his work on Iranian metalwork, A.S. Melikian Chirvani, writes that it is in the middle period of Shah Tahmasp's reign that the pillar candlestick emerged as a form. He writes that the earliest dated example on record is preserved in the Astan-e Qods in Mashhad, and was made in Lahore in 1539. Melikiani-Chirvani suggests that because nothing in its appearance suggests the influence of India, the shamdan can instead be assumed to be the work of an Iranian, probably Khorassani, artist working in Lahore, probably in the entourage of Homayun (A.S.Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World. 8th-18th Centuries, London, 1982, p.263). Our shamdan - which bears a later owner's inscription of AH 988/1580-81 AD, and thus a terminus ante quem - is therefore amongst the earliest examples of the form.