PROBABLY MAMLUK SYRIA, LATE 15TH/EARLY 16TH CENTURY

In her recent study of all the known pieces of "Veneto-Saracenic" metalwork Sylvia Auld divided the known examples into two main groups on account of their decoration (Sylvia Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam, and Mahmud the Kurd - a metalworking enigma, London, 2004). The present bowls fall clearly into these two groups. The bowl illustrated on the left is associated with "Group A", "typically late Mamluk" (Auld, op. cit., p.8). The bowl illustrated on the right falls into "Group B", associated with the vessels signed by Mahmud al-Kurdi and Zayn al-Din (although the present bowl bears no signature).