.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
During the Seljuk period gold and silver jewellery was popularly worn by both men and women. Iranian jewellers and goldsmiths were capable of producing highly complicated and sophisticated designs (Shelia Canby et.al. (eds.), Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs, New York, pp.99-100). Our bracelets are fine examples of a homogenous group, where the terminals to either side of the hinge often feature the heads of lions or dragons (Michael Spink and Jack Ogden, The Art of Adornment, Oxford, 2013, p.294). In terms of decoration, the techniques on ours are similar to those on a bracelet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (59.84) and a near-pair in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (65.249). All have niello added to incised panels and to the sides of the bevel with granulation around the band. Although nielloed jewellery has a history dating back to the Sasanian period, it is particularly strongly associated with the Seljuks (Na'ama Brosh, Islamic Jewelry, Jerusalem, 1987, p.61). The attribution of these bracelets to Greater Iran is strengthened by the decorative vocabulary. Rachel Hasson draws a parallel between the dragon finials on Seljuk bracelets and those on the famous Bobrinski bucket, dated by inscription to Muharram AH 559⁄1163 AD (‘Some characteristics of Medieval Iranian Jewellery’ in Na'ama Brosh, op.cit, p.59).
This bracelet belongs to a particular subgroup with three dimensional felines to either side of the fitting. Examples include a bracelet in the Khalili Collection, which also has raised rhombus motifs on the band of the bracelet similar to those on the present lot (Spink and Ogden, op.cit., no.261, p.297). Another example from the Khalili Collection, in addition to having the raised lion figures, also has nielloed geometric decoration below the bezel, as on the present lot (Spink and Ogden, op.cit., no.262, p.298). A further example from this subgroup is in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MIA2014.586), and another was sold in these Rooms, 11 April 2000, 304. An earlier Iranian bracelet of unusual form was sold in these Rooms, 1 May 2025, lot 27. Groups of gold and silver Seljuk jewellery have recently been sold in these Rooms 1 May 2025, lot 40, and 26 October 2023, lot 40.
This bracelet belongs to a particular subgroup with three dimensional felines to either side of the fitting. Examples include a bracelet in the Khalili Collection, which also has raised rhombus motifs on the band of the bracelet similar to those on the present lot (Spink and Ogden, op.cit., no.261, p.297). Another example from the Khalili Collection, in addition to having the raised lion figures, also has nielloed geometric decoration below the bezel, as on the present lot (Spink and Ogden, op.cit., no.262, p.298). A further example from this subgroup is in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MIA2014.586), and another was sold in these Rooms, 11 April 2000, 304. An earlier Iranian bracelet of unusual form was sold in these Rooms, 1 May 2025, lot 27. Groups of gold and silver Seljuk jewellery have recently been sold in these Rooms 1 May 2025, lot 40, and 26 October 2023, lot 40.