OTTOMAN BALKANS, 18TH CENTURY

The Balkan countries were the main source of silver within the Ottoman Empire - Serbia's richest mine, Novo Brdo, fell to the Turks in 1455 and Mehmet the Conqueror captured Bosnia and therein its biggest mine, Srebenica, in 1463. With that the Balkan and Ottoman influences in silver work begin to mix. Animals contained within compartments or a stylised arcade, are found on a number of related examples generally attributed to Bosnia. With time the regional differences in style between Ragusan, Bosnian and Serbian works began to lessen in the Ottoman period as craftsmen became more mobile. A closely related silver bowl, decorated with a sculpted stag on the omphalos, within a frieze including a rooster, a pigeon, a lion and other animals is published in A Treasured Memory, Ecclesiastical Silver from Late Ottoman Istanbul in the Sevgi Gonul Collection, Brigitte Pitarakis, Christos Merantzas, Istanbul, 2006, cat.33, p.153. The stag and other animals have a strong Christian symbolism in relation to the desire for salvation and to the eternal fight between good and evil. These motifs and symbols are found in Byzantine Art.