A CARVED WOODEN CORNER POST, from a cenotaph, with two adjoining sides carved with an elaborate arabesque interlace running into similar openwork on the corner, a short excerpt from a very elegant naskh inscription above, a similar smaller panel below, the uncarved sides with mortises for jointing other sections, also with brief carved 'sketches' for the work on the finished sides, traces of original poychrome, Timurid Iran, 15th century (very slight damage on leading edge)

Details
A CARVED WOODEN CORNER POST, from a cenotaph, with two adjoining sides carved with an elaborate arabesque interlace running into similar openwork on the corner, a short excerpt from a very elegant naskh inscription above, a similar smaller panel below, the uncarved sides with mortises for jointing other sections, also with brief carved 'sketches' for the work on the finished sides, traces of original poychrome, Timurid Iran, 15th century (very slight damage on leading edge)
52¼in. (134cm.) high

Lot Essay

Other sections from the same cenotaph have been offered in these Rooms, 23 April 1991, lots 77-80, 28 April 1992, lots 166 and 167, and 20October 1992, lots 77-80.

There are few cenotaphs (turba) of the type in public collections, and in only one other of the published examples has the original painting survivied (Fehérvári and Safadi, no.150). The well-known cenotaph in the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, (Pope, pl.1472) is of the same form as this and according to its inscription as made in 1473 for a ruler of the Baduspanid dynasty of Mazanderan. A number of other cenotaphs in Mazanderan have been recorded, but without illustrations, by Rabino; and it is possible that ours too comes from that province.

Pope,A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938
Fehérvári,G. and Safadi,Y.H.: 1400 Years of Islamic Art, Khalili Gallery, London, 1981
Sotheby's: Islamic Works of Art, Carpets and Textiles, London, 12 October 1982, lot 60, now in the Kuwait National Museum.

More from Islamic

View All
View All