GRANADA, SPAIN, SECOND HALF 15TH OR 16TH CENTURY

This octagonal box belongs to a group of polygonal inlaid boxes traditionally attributed to Nasrid al-Andalus. Founded by Muhammad I al-Ghalib of Arjona (r. 1232-73) the Nasrid Dynasty ruled Granada and the territory of al-Andalus for over two centuries, overseeing a period of great artistic patronage and development. The Nasrids developed a sophisticated tradition of architecture and craftsmanship, both in furniture making and ceramics, which built upon the visual language inherited from the Almohad Dynasty based on complex geometric designs.

Taracea describes the technique of decorating woodwork with intricate mosaics of wood, metal and bone, a technique taken to a great level of sophistication under the Nasrids. The term derives from the Arabic word tarsi, which means ‘encrustation’. For a greater discussion of the technique please see the note for lot 48.

This group of boxes, often referred to as pyxides as with the current example, are divided into three groups by Julian Raby in his essay on a Nasrid pyxis sold at Sotheby’s, London, 10 June 2020, lot 87. Raby convincingly argues that the earliest group of eight boxes, including the Sotheby’s 2020 box, date from the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. This argument in part rests on a carbon date test on the Sotheby’s 2020 pyxis but mostly rests on comparison to the taracea used on the minbars in the mosques in Fez and Marrakesh. A second group of three boxes, which he does not specifically attribute, follow this.The latest group, assigned to the late fourteenth or fifteenth century, comprises two ten-sided boxes which relate to a pair of doors from the Palacio de los Infantes in Granada which can be confidently assigned to the early fifteenth century (J.D. Dodds (ed.), Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain, New York, 1992, cat.118, pp. 372-73). One of these two boxes is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (acc.no.270-1985) and features star polygons with complex infills in a variety of colours.

Like the earliest group our pyxis is octagonal and features some of the same decorative elements, notably the band of dentate merlon motifs found on earlier boxes (see Christie’s London, 28 October 2020, lot 20 and Sotheby’s London, 26 April 2023, lot 77). However, the stacked stellar motifs found relate much more to furniture of the late Nasrid and post-Nasrid period which would place our box in a group of its own.

Mariam Rosser-Owen refers to this as the ‘petalled star’ motif, something she identified as typical of sixteenth century work (Islamic Arts from Spain, London, 2010, p.88). The use of silver in the decoration of our pyxis further supports this dating as the material became more commonly used by the sixteenth century due to the increased abundance of the material arriving from Spain’s New World colonies (ibid.). The petalled star motif, black and white bands around the corner of the lid and foot, and protruding foot of our lot are all features found in a sixteenth century box produced in Granada and now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (acc.no.530-1903).

The petalled star motif found on our pyxis is also closely comparable to a small group of hip-joint armchairs from Granada. Five of these chairs are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and all except one are catalogued as late fifteenth century (Acc.nos.45.60.41a,b; 27.225.1; 45.60.40a; 1975.1.1978; 1975.1.1979 ab). A painting dating from 1545-46 by Gerlach Flicke in the National Gallery, London, shows Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer sat in one of these Granada chairs (NPG 535) and shows that they were widely in vogue well beyond Spain by the mid-sixteenth century. Another hip-joint Granada chair was sold in these Rooms, 7 April 2011, lot 119. This was dated to the last-quarter of the fifteenth century to the first half of the sixteenth century, a dating supported by a carbon test of the wood (giving 95% probability of 1470-1670).

Exactly what these pyxides were used for is unknown. Similar octagonal metal containers, albeit much smaller, are generally thought to have been used as inkwells (see for example one in the David Collection, inv.no.16/2016) and a number of ivory examples, attributed to either Mamluk Egypt or Syria, used to store aromatics (see the David Collection, inv.no.25/1999). Although we do not know what the present lot was used to store, it was no doubt valuable, reflecting the refined and sophisticated craftsmanship of the piece.