TURKEY, LATE 15TH OR 16TH CENTURY

A candlestick very similar to ours in form is in the Madina Collection (Yanni Petsopoulos (ed.), Tulips, Arabesques & Turbans, London, 1982, pp.47, no.40). That has a similar tulip shaped socket, and crenellated drip-tray. It also bears a name of its owner, and a date of AH 905⁄1499-1500 AD. Unlike ours, the surface of the Madina candlestick is undecorated. The lightly chiselled decoration that one finds on our candlestick, with fleshy palmettes around the body and bands of strapwork at the neck and base can be found in other related examples, for instance one in the Sadberk Hanim Museum (Hülya Bilgi, Reunited after Centuries: Works of Art Restored to Turkey by the Sadberk Hanim Museum, 2005, pp.94-95, cat.no.37). The decoration reflects the visual vocabulary of the ceramics and architecture from the period of Sultan Bayezid II (r.1481-1512) which exhibit the ‘Baba Nakkash’ style prevalent in the royal workshops of that time. A similar brass candlestick although without the tulip-shaped socket was sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2021, lot 87.