PROBABLY MAZANDERAN, NORTH IRAN, SECOND HALF 15TH CENTURY

The heavily forested province of Mazanderan in north Iran is renowned for its wood, notably the sweet-smelling khalanj (Léo Bronstein, 'Decorative Woodwork of the Islamic Period', in A.U.Pope, A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, p.2622). Bronstein notes that a considerable number of late fourteenth and fifteenth century wood carvings have survived in the region. He copies out in a footnote all the sixteen examples noted in 1928 by H.L. Rabino (Mazanderan and Astarabad, London, 1928) which date from AH 781/1379 to AH 906/1500 AD. He goes on to say that the authorities are in the process of listing and photographing everything, a process which resulted in the multi-volume work by Sotoudeh.

These elegantly carved panels (lots 134, 135, 137 and 139), relate to that group. The fish-scale ground, seen on the two panels of this lot, and the sharply cut but very elegant small floral motifs found on all of the panels also decorate on a cenotaph in the Khalili Collection, which is signed Shams al-Din Sari and dated AH 902/1496 AD (N. Pourjavady (gen. ed.), The Splendour of Iran, London, 2001, vol.3, pp.218-19). Two further related pairs of doors from the same region are in the Art and History Trust (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, no.34, p.94) and in the National Museum, Tehran, which are signed and dated AH 846/1442 AD (The Arts of Islam, 1976, no.458, p.292). A closely related door sold in these Rooms, 23 October 2007, lot 100.