TURKEY, CIRCA 1500

This candlestick relates closely to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (91.1.586, Esin Atil et al, Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1985, fig.66, p.192). Both examples have simple bands of small vertical incisions resembling beading running around the body and neck at various points and both have a flat, protruding rim. That one has engraved decoration around the body and neck which relates to the artistic vocabulary used under Beyazid II (1481-1512). Traces of similar engraving can be found on the present candlestick. Another comprable is in the Sadberk Hanim Museum (Hülya Bilgi (ed.), Reunited after Centuries. Works of art restored to Turkey by the Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul, 2005, no.37, pp.94-95). That example shares not only the beaded bands but also the piercing around the boss around the neck and the base of the body and is dated to the late 15th or early 16th century.