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Lot Essay
The silver body of this tray is inscribed with the bismillah, invocations to God against Satan, and Qur'an XXXIII, sura al-ahzab, v.40.
Not of all the seals are read. Those that are include: Qur'an II, sura al-baqara, v.255; the call on God to bless the fourteen innocents; the nada 'aliyan quatrain with invocations to Muhammad and 'Ali and part of Qur'an XIII, sura al-ra'd, v.13 and a prayer in Arabic.
This silver tray incorporates many earlier elements including elegantly inscribed Safavid and Timurid jade seals. This technique of incorporating older jade panels and other stones relates to a series of weapons, particularly daggers. All have numbers of inset stones combined with relatively heavy moulding, and often a relatively early (and possibly spurious) date. Frequently they incorporate elements from earlier weapons. The mount between the blade and hilt on a dagger in Denmark is a good example (Islamic Arms and Armour from Private Danish Collections, exhibition catalogue, Copenhagen, 1982, no.1, pp.52-3). Another related example is in the same exhibition (no.73, pp.114-5).
Not of all the seals are read. Those that are include: Qur'an II, sura al-baqara, v.255; the call on God to bless the fourteen innocents; the nada 'aliyan quatrain with invocations to Muhammad and 'Ali and part of Qur'an XIII, sura al-ra'd, v.13 and a prayer in Arabic.
This silver tray incorporates many earlier elements including elegantly inscribed Safavid and Timurid jade seals. This technique of incorporating older jade panels and other stones relates to a series of weapons, particularly daggers. All have numbers of inset stones combined with relatively heavy moulding, and often a relatively early (and possibly spurious) date. Frequently they incorporate elements from earlier weapons. The mount between the blade and hilt on a dagger in Denmark is a good example (Islamic Arms and Armour from Private Danish Collections, exhibition catalogue, Copenhagen, 1982, no.1, pp.52-3). Another related example is in the same exhibition (no.73, pp.114-5).