A WEST PERSIAN SILVER INLAID CANDLESTICK BASE of tapering cylindrical form with everted rim and flat shoulder, the body inlaid with a series of roundels containing figures fighting dogs, feeding birds, reading and writing, alternating with cartouches containing pairs of birds, the interstices filled with dense silver inlaid leafy plants, vine border above, rope-pattern and meandering flowering vine border below, similar border around rim enclosing kufic inscription, 13th century (damage to lower borders and inlay, shoulder rubbed)

Details

A WEST PERSIAN SILVER INLAID CANDLESTICK BASE of tapering cylindrical form with everted rim and flat shoulder, the body inlaid with a series of roundels containing figures fighting dogs, feeding birds, reading and writing, alternating with cartouches containing pairs of birds, the interstices filled with dense silver inlaid leafy plants, vine border above, rope-pattern and meandering flowering vine border below, similar border around rim enclosing kufic inscription, 13th century (damage to lower borders and inlay, shoulder rubbed)
4in. (10cm.) high

Lot Essay

It is rare to find figural depictions with the verve of those seen here, and also unusual for the ground on which they are placed to be as freely floral. Only the Western Islamic metalworkers seem to have loosened their structural approach to this extent. A similar ground is seen on a larger candlestick formerly in the Harari collection (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford and London 1938, vol.VI, pl. 1371) and on a second in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh (Baer, E.: Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art, New York 1983, pl.130, p.155). The former example is signed by Muhammad b. Raf(i') al-Din Shirazi and dated to 1360. The latter has the vigorous figures seen here.

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