ILKHANID IRAN, 14TH CENTURY

In his catalogue entry for this piece Dr. James Allan demonstrates its similarity in both form and decoration to that of three bosses formerly in the Harari Collection and now in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo (Pope, 1938, pl.1357A and p.2505). All have the sockets cast integrally in one piece with the ball, in which respect they differ from all other known ball joints. They also have close similarities shown by the surface decoration. The Harari pieces are inscribed in the name of the Ilkhanid Sultan Muhammad Khudabanda Uljeitu (1304-1317) whose summer capital was Sultaniyya, enabling the present boss to be dated and attributed with confidence to North West Iran of the early 14th century.