UMAYYAD SPAIN, 10TH CENTURY

Details

A BRONZE TRIPOD LAMPSTAND
Umayyad Spain, 10th century
Of triangular form resting on three circular feet rising to bell-shaped middle section engraved with a band of palmettes above a kufic inscription reading baraka (blessing), further plain section rising to a point, small tubular upper section possibly associated
21½in. (54.5cm.) high

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Lot Essay

Very few items of metal work remain from this early period of Muslim Spain. A lampstand with a similar sort of protruding spike, but much more elaborate in form, is in the David Collection in Copenhagen but it is fragmentary and lacks the lower part. Presumably, the drip pan was removable and has in this case been lost. It has a similar band of kufic with a repeating inscription reading baraka (blessing) on a knop to the present example. Les Andalousies, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2000, nos. 93a and b, p.116.
Another simpler lampstand with the upper spike was found in Madinat Ilbira and is now in the Archaeological Museum in Granada (Arte islamico en Granada, exhibition catalogue, Granada 1995, no.36, p.232)

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