IRAN, 12TH OR 13TH CENTURY

This bracelet comes from a fairly homogenous group of Seljuk gold bracelets which share many important features. These include a triangular cross-section and gold sheet construction. Generally, they fasten with a pin running into a central bezel setting, and are hinged on the other side. The terminals to either side of the hinge often feature the heads of lions or dragons (Michael Spink and Jack Ogden, The Art of Adornment, Oxford, 2013, p.294). In terms of decoration, the techniques on ours are similar to those on a bracelet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no.59.84) and a near-pair in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (acc.no.65.249). In addition to granulation around the edges of the bevel, niello is added to incised panels around the band and to the sides of the bevel. Though nielloed jewelley has a history dating back to the Sasanian period, it is particularly strongly associated with the Seljuks (Na'ama Brosh, Islamic Jewelry, Jerusalem, 1987, p.61). The firm attribution of this bracelet to Greater Iran is strengthened by the decorative vocabulary. Rachel Hasson draws a parallel between the dragon finials on Seljuk bracelets and those which appear on the famous Bobrinski bucket, dated by inscription to Muharram AH 559⁄1163 AD ("Some characteristics of Medieval Iranian Jewellery" in Na'ama Brosh, Jewellery and Goldsmithing in the Islamic World, Jerusalem, 1987, p.59).

This bracelet belongs to a particular subgroup with three-dimensional felines to either side of the fitting. Examples include a bracelet in the Khalili Collection, which also has raised rhombus motifs on the band of the bracelet similar to those on the present lot (Spink and Ogden, op.cit., no.261, p.297). Another example from the collection, in addition to having the raised lion figures, also has nielloed geometric decoration below the bezel, as on the present lot (ibid., no.262, p.298). A further example from this subgroup is in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (acc.no.MIA2014.586).