SIGNED TAQI, ZAND IRAN OR POSSIBLY OTTOMAN SYRIA, DATED AH 1175/1761 AD

A group of enamelled gilt-copper objects signed Taqi traditionally attributed to Zand Iran are known. See for example an incense burner published in Robinson, 1988, pp.134-145, no.M21. An enamelled dagger with very similar colouring sold at Christie’s, London, 23 October 2007, lot 304. Daggers of this group have been attributed to either Qajar or Zand Iran or Ottoman Syria on the basis of a dagger kept at the Metropolitan Museum bearing the artisan’s signature with the nisba ‘al-Dimishqi’(inv.no.32.75.263).An incense burner sold Christie’s, London, 26 October 2017, lot 207 supported this Ottoman attribution for the group, as the work was very similar but it was a classic Turkish form. The shape of our dagger, on the other hand, is more typically Persian.