A PARCEL-GILT AND NIELLOED KOHL FLASK

OTTOMAN TURKEY, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A PARCEL-GILT AND NIELLOED KOHL FLASK
OTTOMAN TURKEY, LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY
Of rounded form with slightly flattened sides with raised central knops, with cylindrical neck with domed screw top and attached thin spatula, the sides with two attached loops and chain with gilt crescent pendant, the front and back of the bottle with large rosette containing stylised flowerheads and irises surrounded further floral sprays on nielloed ground, sides and top with scalloped design bordered on each side with bands of strapwork
2½in. (6.4cm.) high including lid

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Lot Essay

A sword and scabbard with mounts decorated with very similar rosettes in relief also surrounded by a circular band of nielloed floral motifs was taken as 'Türkenbeute', and are recorded as being in the possession of August the Strong of Saxony and Poland in 1719. The hilt now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden has a tughra of Ottoman Sultan Mustafa II (r.1695-1703), suggesting that our flask also dates to the late 17th or early 18th century (inv.-Nr. Y 98, Holger Schuckelt, Die Tckische Cammer. Sammlung orientalischer Kunst in der kurfstlich-shsischen Rtkammer Dresden, exhibition catalogue, Dresden, 2010, no.295, p.300).

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