Lot Essay
As with the chamfrons discussed in the note to lot 64, so the form of knee and thigh guards did not vary substantially between the Mamluk, Ottoman, Turkman and even Timurid dynasties. There are however differences in the decoration with that on the present example being closest to that of the coat made in the name of Ibrahim Sultan, now in the Furusiyya Art Foundation, thus indicating a Timurid provenance (Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight, Milan, 2007, no.289, pp.300-301). This probability is further enhanced when comparing it to later Timurid miniatures. Michael Gorelik's study of the depiction of armour in Persian miniatures not only shows this precise form of leg guard being used in the late Timurid period, but also a majority of knee-guards that have protrusions out of the centre of them, which are almost unknown in knee-guards from elsewhere (Michael Gorelik, "Oriental Armour of the Near and Middle East from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries as shown in works of art", in Robert Elgood (ed.), Islamic Arms and Armour, London, 1979, p.62-63). One figure among those depicted, fig.198, even clearly shows a radiating rosette as part of the knee guard, exactly as seen here.