PROBABLY MAMLUK SYRIA, FIRST HALF 16TH CENTURY 

Two very similar covered bowls, the design identically executed, each formerly in the collection of John Henderson, are now in the British Museum (inv. nos. 1878, 1230.693 and 1878, 1230.695). Each is reported to have been acquired in Palestine. In all three cases the design is very crisply preserved, further enhanced by the retained black composition, but the silver and possible gold are entirely absent. All also base many designs around a lozenge shape formed of four addorsed split palmettes. The same motif, which retains a little silver, serves to decorate the underside of the cover of the present bowl. These bowls are typical of Sylvia Auld’s "Group A", "typically late Mamluk" (Sylvia Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam, and Mahmud the Kurd - a metalworking enigma, London, 2004, p.8).

William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney (1835-1909), was a prolific collector of books and works of art which he assembled in Didlington Hall. The Ancient Egyptian collection at Didlington was also an inspiration for Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tutankhamun, who worked closely with Mary Cecil, Lord Amherst’s eldest daughter, at archaeological sites in Aswan, Egypt.