TURKEY AND HUNGARY, CIRCA 1600

Details

AN OTTOMAN CARVED BLOODSTONE CUP
TURKEY AND HUNGARY, CIRCA 1600
The body carved with a scrolling arabesque lattice, the vertices with indents for inlaid stones, on a splayed foot, with contemporaneous Hungarian mounts and handle enamelled and inlaid, the lid similar and elaborately decorated with snakes and lizards and a sea-creature finial
2 7/8in. (7.4cm.) high

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Lot Essay

A similar cup made of heliotrope or 'bloodstone' is in the collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid (inv. O000071). That cup retains its gold and gemstone inlay, but lacks the later Hungarian mounts of the present cup. It is first recorded in a 1689 inventory of the 'Tesoro del Delfín', a collection of goldwork and objects of vertu which belonged to Louis of France and passed to his son Felipe V of Spain (r.1700-46). A comparable pattern of fine inlay and set gemstones on a dark hardstone can also be seen on an Ottoman hilt owned by Paul I, Prince Esterházy (1635-1713), the Hungarian Field Marshal famed for his indefatigable campaigns against the Ottoman sultans (Nurhan Atasoy and Lale Uluc, Impressions of Ottoman Culture in Europe: 1453-1699, Istanbul: Armaggan Publications, 2012, pp. 258-9)

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