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Lot Essay
The shallow rounded cup of precious metal with a handle on one side is a form which is known from the Seljuk period in Persia, such as a niello decorated silver cup in the L. A. Mayer Memorial Museum in Jerusalem (Baer, Eva: Metalwork in Mediaeval Islamic Art, New York, 1983, p.105). The Mongol control however of lands from Persia to China meant that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Chinese silver shapes were imported virtually unaltered into the Islmic world as in the present example.
This is one of a small number of similar vessels, all but two of which are made in silver rather than gold, most of which are in the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, having been excavated in areas within the former Soviet Union. Other examples can be found in Suslov, Vitaly (general ed.): The State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, London, 1994, vol.1, no. 452, pp.472-3; Folsach, Kjeld v.: Sultan Shah and Great Mughal, exhibition catalogue, Copenhagen, 1996, no.253, p.276, and Ivanov, Anatoli (intro. by): Masterpieces of Islamic Art in the Hermitage Museum, Kuwait, 1990, no.62, p.94. Two further examples have been offered in these Rooms, 26 April 1994, lot 313 and 20 April 1999, lot 518. The catalogue note by Ivanov states that several dozen similar vessels have been excavated; very few however have appeared in the West.
This is one of a small number of similar vessels, all but two of which are made in silver rather than gold, most of which are in the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, having been excavated in areas within the former Soviet Union. Other examples can be found in Suslov, Vitaly (general ed.): The State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, London, 1994, vol.1, no. 452, pp.472-3; Folsach, Kjeld v.: Sultan Shah and Great Mughal, exhibition catalogue, Copenhagen, 1996, no.253, p.276, and Ivanov, Anatoli (intro. by): Masterpieces of Islamic Art in the Hermitage Museum, Kuwait, 1990, no.62, p.94. Two further examples have been offered in these Rooms, 26 April 1994, lot 313 and 20 April 1999, lot 518. The catalogue note by Ivanov states that several dozen similar vessels have been excavated; very few however have appeared in the West.