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Lot Essay
INSCRIPTIONS:
Round the neck: al-'izz al-da 'im wa al-iqba l wa al-....'Perpetual glory and Prosperity and...'
Around the base: al-'izz al-da'im wa al-iqbal wa a l-dawla wa al-sa'ada wa al-sala ma wa al-kira [ma] wa al-raha wa a-... 'Perpetual glory and Prosperity and wealth and Happiness and Well-being and Generosity and Ease and...'
The later Armenian inscription around the shoulder reads Yishatak e shamatans Awetisin i dourn Sourb Karapetin thvin RCE (1077), This candlestick is to the memory of Awetis laid at the door of Saint Karapet [Church] in the year 1077)
Candlesticks from this particular group share a similar profile and size, though exhibit a wide variety of decorative schemes. While an example in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1955,0214.2) is predominantly aniconic, others depict signs of the zodiac or courtly pursuits. The present lot, with its roundels of mounted figures and a central band with knotted motifs, has similar decoration to an example in the Khalili Collection (MTW 1389, published in J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam: Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London, 2010, no.113, p.103).
In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are two further examples of candlesticks with Armenian inscriptions. The first is a late 13th century Mamluk candlestick, with an incised inscription reading ‘this candlestick is in memory of Temar, valiant son of Mkrtic, who gave it to the Mother of God’ (M.716-1910). The second is another Siirt candlestick, upon which there is an inscription dated to 1691 AD dedicating it to a shrine at Siwas (Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Centuries, London, 1982, pp. 356-368 no. 172). These inscriptions recall those on Kütahya pottery with dedicatory inscriptions, such as the jug in the British Museum which records its endowment in 1510 AD to a church in Kütahya (G.1; published in Helen C. Evans (ed.), Armenia: Art, Religion and Trade in the Middle Ages, New York, 2018, fig.71, p.221). While Armenian-inscribed Kütahya pottery would have been made specifically commissioned to be endowed, the corpus of inscribed candlesticks shows that valuable ‘antique’ objects were also given to Armenian religious foundations in memory of loved ones.
Round the neck: al-'izz al-da 'im wa al-iqba l wa al-....'Perpetual glory and Prosperity and...'
Around the base: al-'izz al-da'im wa al-iqbal wa a l-dawla wa al-sa'ada wa al-sala ma wa al-kira [ma] wa al-raha wa a-... 'Perpetual glory and Prosperity and wealth and Happiness and Well-being and Generosity and Ease and...'
The later Armenian inscription around the shoulder reads Yishatak e shamatans Awetisin i dourn Sourb Karapetin thvin RCE (1077), This candlestick is to the memory of Awetis laid at the door of Saint Karapet [Church] in the year 1077)
Candlesticks from this particular group share a similar profile and size, though exhibit a wide variety of decorative schemes. While an example in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1955,0214.2) is predominantly aniconic, others depict signs of the zodiac or courtly pursuits. The present lot, with its roundels of mounted figures and a central band with knotted motifs, has similar decoration to an example in the Khalili Collection (MTW 1389, published in J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam: Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London, 2010, no.113, p.103).
In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are two further examples of candlesticks with Armenian inscriptions. The first is a late 13th century Mamluk candlestick, with an incised inscription reading ‘this candlestick is in memory of Temar, valiant son of Mkrtic, who gave it to the Mother of God’ (M.716-1910). The second is another Siirt candlestick, upon which there is an inscription dated to 1691 AD dedicating it to a shrine at Siwas (Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Centuries, London, 1982, pp. 356-368 no. 172). These inscriptions recall those on Kütahya pottery with dedicatory inscriptions, such as the jug in the British Museum which records its endowment in 1510 AD to a church in Kütahya (G.1; published in Helen C. Evans (ed.), Armenia: Art, Religion and Trade in the Middle Ages, New York, 2018, fig.71, p.221). While Armenian-inscribed Kütahya pottery would have been made specifically commissioned to be endowed, the corpus of inscribed candlesticks shows that valuable ‘antique’ objects were also given to Armenian religious foundations in memory of loved ones.
