PROBABLY FRANCE, 19TH CENTURY, AFTER A SAFAVID ORIGINAL

The present lot copies a similar object in the Louvre (inv. AD4416) which has been attributed to 16th century Safavid Iran. Described as a ceremonial hook, the exact use of this object, intricately designed and decorated in fine silver overlay with matching pierced calligraphic inscriptions, is unknown. The addition of flat pieces of metal on each spike of the hook suggests the maker of our object imagined the Safavid example to be a pendant candlestick. A further example, almost certainly made in the same workshop as the present lot, is in the David Collection (Kjeld von Folsach, Islamic Art, The David Collection, 1990, cat.348, p.208).