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Lot Essay
The inset hardstone elements of this box relate closely to panels used both on jewellery (a bracelet was sold in these Rooms 16 October 2001, lot 262, and another is in Frankfurt - see Türkische Kunst und Kultur aus osmanischer Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt, 1985, no. 7/4, vol. 1, p. 125 and vol. 2, p. 308), weapons and saddlery (op. cit., vol. 2, p. 368 and Garo Kürkman, Ottoman Silver Marks, Istanbul, 1996, p. 136-37). The dagger and saddle published in Kürkman are both marked with the tughra of Murad IV (1623-40 AD), suggesting a similar date for the elements of the present box.
In his book The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Esin Atil describes the Ottoman taste of the period as showing a strong preference for bold red, green and bluish-green stones with a mind to creating a coloristic effect unconcerned by the physical perfection of the gemstones (Atil, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, New York, 1988, p. 118). The brilliant and colourful effect produced in a sense echoes the contemporaneous taste in manuscript illumination.
A box with similar jade and hardstone panels was in these Rooms, 4 April 2006, lot 119.
In his book The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Esin Atil describes the Ottoman taste of the period as showing a strong preference for bold red, green and bluish-green stones with a mind to creating a coloristic effect unconcerned by the physical perfection of the gemstones (Atil, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, New York, 1988, p. 118). The brilliant and colourful effect produced in a sense echoes the contemporaneous taste in manuscript illumination.
A box with similar jade and hardstone panels was in these Rooms, 4 April 2006, lot 119.