Lot Essay
A similar suite of similar Golden Horde jewellery was sold in these rooms, October 17 1995, p. 118, lot 296. That suite contained items of various shapes, including a series of lozenge plates of very similar proportions to those in the present lot. Although very closely related, they differ in a number of details. The individual items in the present suite contain in addition to the round inlaid stones, found also in the former examples, four outer stones, two of which are heart-shaped and two crescent-shaped. These shaped inset turquoises are however similar in form to those in other items from the previous lot. Furthermore the granulations are not as dense in the present lot as in the other. It is also noteworthy that the individual lozenges are pierced beneath the four centre-stones. The previous lozenges, while pierced through the back plates, had holes which did not appear to coincide with the decoration on the front. It is almost certain that the present lozenges were sewn onto a base-fabric in the same way that 19th and twentieth century Turkman jewellery includes a decoration involving diagonal arrangements of lozenge panels stitched down to a red felt backing cloth. A very interesting detail is the little remnant of cloth padding in one of the grooves, intended to support the stone set into it. This provides a very rare glimpse into the technique used to inlay these objects.
Our present lozenges can, like the previous suite, be attributed to the Golden Horde, those Mongols who under the leadership of Ghengis Khan's son Juchi settled in the lower Volga and Crimea in the second half of the thirteenth century. Excavations in the Crimea have recently recovered a treasure at Niezatski which contained a cache of jewellery including bracelets and phylacteries in the form of pendants. These had the same box construction as ours (see Kramarovsky, M.G.: 'Niezatski Treasure: Crimea and Asia Minor in the 14th century', Bizantiya i blizhni Vostok Gosudarstvennugo Ermitazha, XLVII, St. Petersburg, 1994). Another related example is a pendant with the same box construction and combination of filigree and granulation is in the Hermitage, Leningrad (see: Masterpieces of Islamic Art in the Hermitage Museum, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyya, Kuwait, 1990, no. 48).
Our present lozenges can, like the previous suite, be attributed to the Golden Horde, those Mongols who under the leadership of Ghengis Khan's son Juchi settled in the lower Volga and Crimea in the second half of the thirteenth century. Excavations in the Crimea have recently recovered a treasure at Niezatski which contained a cache of jewellery including bracelets and phylacteries in the form of pendants. These had the same box construction as ours (see Kramarovsky, M.G.: 'Niezatski Treasure: Crimea and Asia Minor in the 14th century', Bizantiya i blizhni Vostok Gosudarstvennugo Ermitazha, XLVII, St. Petersburg, 1994). Another related example is a pendant with the same box construction and combination of filigree and granulation is in the Hermitage, Leningrad (see: Masterpieces of Islamic Art in the Hermitage Museum, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyya, Kuwait, 1990, no. 48).