OTTOMAN TURKEY, EARLY 17TH CENTURY

The form of this matara follows a leather prototype, which Ottoman artisans developed and elevated to luxury objects by reproducing in other, more costly materials such as rock crystal or Iznik pottery (see Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik. The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, nos.633 and 634 and Esin Atil, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, exhibition catalogue, Washington D.C., 1987, p.129, no.60). A tombak version dated to the 17^th century, is in the Furusiyya Collection (Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight, Milan, 2007, p.282, no.274). Like ours, that matara has overall lightly pounced surface decoration of floral designs centred in and around an ogival motif on each side.

Various other forms of matara are known. A rare tombak example sold in these Rooms 2 May 2019, lot 159. Another tombak matara of the same form in the British Museum is published in Yanni Petsopoulos (ed.), Tulips, Arabesques & Turbans, London, 1982, p.35, no.13C (inv.97-3-20 1). The surface of the British Museum matara is again very similarly decorated to ours.