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Lot Essay
The inscriptions read:
al-'izz al-da'im wa al-'umr al-salim wa al-iqbal al-za'id wa al-jadd al-sa'id wa a , l-sa'd al-qasid wa al-khayr al-wafid wa al-nasr al-ghalib wa al-amr al-nafidh wa , al-dawla al-baqiya wa al-salama al-'aliya wa al-karama al-da'ima wa al-baqa li-sahib[ihi] (Perpetual glory, safe life, increasing prosperity, rising good fortune, ongoing happiness, apporaching riches, triumphant victory, penetrating command, lasting wealth, high (?) well-being and long life to the owner).
On the shoulder is written a name, possibly "Jahan" while inside is the name of a later owner, "Muhammad Ibrahim".
The shape of this candlestick is most unusual. There is enough left of the mouth to see that it continued as sheet metal and is therefore much more likely to have been a smaller repeat of the form of the base, as is normal in such candlesticks, rather than a screw-threaded socket for a columnar shaft. The rounded form of the shoulder seen here is otherwise much more closely akin to that of the bases of a group of torchstands with columnar shafts of slightly later date (Komaroff, Linda: The Golden Disk of Heaven, Metalwork of Timurid Iran, Costa Mesa and New York, 1992, pls.19 and 20, p.46 among others), There are however numerous differences. It is not the form found normally in western Iran, as shown by one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston dated 708/1308 (Melikian-Chirvani, A.S.: 'The Lights of Sufi Shrines', Islamic Art II, Genoa and New York, 1987, fig.7), nor is it the typical Mamluk shape shown by lot 133 in this sale. The decoration has basic similarities of layout with that of the Boston candlestick noted above, but the detail is closer to Mamluk designs, such as a candlestick attributed to Syria, now in Qatar ('Art from the World of Islam' Louisiana Revy, vol.27, no.3, March 1987, no.114, p.90).
al-'izz al-da'im wa al-'umr al-salim wa al-iqbal al-za'id wa al-jadd al-sa'id wa a , l-sa'd al-qasid wa al-khayr al-wafid wa al-nasr al-ghalib wa al-amr al-nafidh wa , al-dawla al-baqiya wa al-salama al-'aliya wa al-karama al-da'ima wa al-baqa li-sahib[ihi] (Perpetual glory, safe life, increasing prosperity, rising good fortune, ongoing happiness, apporaching riches, triumphant victory, penetrating command, lasting wealth, high (?) well-being and long life to the owner).
On the shoulder is written a name, possibly "Jahan" while inside is the name of a later owner, "Muhammad Ibrahim".
The shape of this candlestick is most unusual. There is enough left of the mouth to see that it continued as sheet metal and is therefore much more likely to have been a smaller repeat of the form of the base, as is normal in such candlesticks, rather than a screw-threaded socket for a columnar shaft. The rounded form of the shoulder seen here is otherwise much more closely akin to that of the bases of a group of torchstands with columnar shafts of slightly later date (Komaroff, Linda: The Golden Disk of Heaven, Metalwork of Timurid Iran, Costa Mesa and New York, 1992, pls.19 and 20, p.46 among others), There are however numerous differences. It is not the form found normally in western Iran, as shown by one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston dated 708/1308 (Melikian-Chirvani, A.S.: 'The Lights of Sufi Shrines', Islamic Art II, Genoa and New York, 1987, fig.7), nor is it the typical Mamluk shape shown by lot 133 in this sale. The decoration has basic similarities of layout with that of the Boston candlestick noted above, but the detail is closer to Mamluk designs, such as a candlestick attributed to Syria, now in Qatar ('Art from the World of Islam' Louisiana Revy, vol.27, no.3, March 1987, no.114, p.90).