A RARE OTTOMAN SHAFFRON, formed of a single piece of steel with a horizontal flange (damaged) at the top and shaped flanges round the eyes, low medial ridge and boxed sides at the muzzle, at the top a row of gilt-copper rivets for the pate-plate (missing), the edges throughout pierced for a lining, the brow with bold counterfeit damascened gold inscription in thulth script (rubbed, the outer surface now russet, minor areas of damage and pitting overall), circa 1517-20

细节
A RARE OTTOMAN SHAFFRON, formed of a single piece of steel with a horizontal flange (damaged) at the top and shaped flanges round the eyes, low medial ridge and boxed sides at the muzzle, at the top a row of gilt-copper rivets for the pate-plate (missing), the edges throughout pierced for a lining, the brow with bold counterfeit damascened gold inscription in thulth script (rubbed, the outer surface now russet, minor areas of damage and pitting overall), circa 1517-20
21 1/8in.

拍品专文

The inscription is only partly legible: '...our Lord the Sultan...' (mawlana al-Sultan). The remaining titles and the name of the Sultan are illegible, but the style of writing is of the early 16th Century, probably the period of Selim I

The Ottoman Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) was the son of Bayazid II and father of Sulayman the Magnificent. He is noted for the conquest of Egypt and Syria in 1517, and for his defeat of Shah Isma'il, first of the Safavid rulers of Persia, at the decisive battle of Chaldiran in 1514

This shaffron is unusual in having a horizontal flange, a feature found on only two other recorded examples: the shaffron illustrated in G.C. Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor..., New York, 1934, fig. 214:7, and the shaffron sold in these Rooms, 3 July 1991, lot 131