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Lot Essay
This exceptional casket is densely decorated on each face with astrological imagery. Cusped cartouches on the front, sides and back contain the enthroned figure of Jawzahr who holds a wine cup and is flanked by dragon-headed staffs. In astrology Jawzahr, also known as the dragon (al-tinnin), was identified as the eclipse planet, believed to be responsible for all solar and lunar eclipses. At the moment of the pseudo-planet’s greatest power, its exaltation, the dragons were considered to have swallowed the sun or moon (this is further discussed in Michael Spink, Brasses, Bronze and silver of the Islamic Lands, London, 2022, pp. 760-61). The Jawzahr motif can be found on a number of other early bronze vessels including the Bobrinsky bucket in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (CA-12687), which is dated 1163 AD and attributed to Herat, and a mortar in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (91.1.527a) which has been dated to the late 12th or early 13th century.
The rest of the imagery on our casket also relates to eclipses with no references to the planets found. The top panels are decorated with the solar motif of the sphinx (Spink, op.cit., p.766). The sphinxes' tails, typically shown with a dragon’s head, here are in the form of a hare’s head. This may relate to the constellation of the hare which rose with Gemini – the point of Jawzahr’s greatest power – around the year 1200 (Willy Hartner, ‘The Vaso Vascovali in the British Museum. A Study on Islamic Astrological Iconography’, Kunst des Orients, 9, 1973, p.112) which supports a late 12th or early 13th century dating for our casket.
The majority of inscriptions of our box are benedictory in nature of types found repeatedly in metalwork of the period. An anonymous owner is referred to twice which may suggest that fine boxes such as this were manufactured for a market rather than individual as commissions. Despite the very high quality of work, the Bobrinsky bucket was commissioned for one Khwaja Rukh al-Din ‘pride of merchants’ and therefore it seems that fine inlaid metalwork was produced for wealthy middle-class patrons (Spink, op.cit, pp.182-84). Although the use it not known, the astrological motifs of our box may have been intended as talismanic and to protect the owner. A similarly decorated ewer from Herat, now in the Museum of Georgian History, Tblisi (MS 135), is inscribed ‘Seven heavenly bodies, however proud they may be, are protection for the one who works so’.
It is highly likely that the form of our casket relates to a prototype in silver, as with many other early Islamic metalwork forms (see Spink, op.cit, pp.317-318). The rectangular box with bevelled lid is seen on two examples that were found in the Harari hoard in Iran (Pope and Ackerman, A Survey of Persian Art. From Prehistoric Times to the present, London, 1938-39, pls. 1352a and 1352b). As with our casket, the Harari boxes have external straps which are not structurally necessary but suggest that the original form was made from panels of organic materials, likely wood or ivory, secured by fastenings.
Our casket can be related to a group of eight closely related examples of this copper-alloy group. Four include images of Jawzahr within roundels. The first is in the Keir collection (Geza Fehervari, Islamic Metalwork of the 8th to the 15th century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976, pp. 76-7, no.85, pl. 27a), another, which has cartouches of Jawzahr on the sides, elephants and camel riders on the front and the seven planetary figures on the base, is in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MW.10.1997). The third is a box with images of Jawzahr on the body alongside horsemen shooting arrows was exhibited in Geneva in 1985 (Toby Falk (ed.), Treasures of Islam, Geneva and London, 1985, p.260, no.266). Notably the Geneva box also depicts spinxes with hare’s heads on their tails. The fourth, which places Jawzahr in a roundel in the flat centre of the lid, is in a private collection.
The other four boxes lack the depiction of Jawzahr but are related to the present lot in form, inscriptions and medallion decoration. One, with rosettes representing the planets, is in the Khalili Collection (MTW 1286). Another box includes similar benedictory inscriptions in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (D 567). The final box, which is missing its original lid but which has similar vases containing entwined stems on the back, was formerly in the collection of F.R. Martin and now in the National Museum, Stockholm (60 / 1899).
An exceptional silver-inlaid bronze candlestick of similar date with Jawzahr on each faced side was sold in these rooms, 15 October 2002, lot 199. Another vessel, a silver-inlaid inkwell, with Jawzahr at the centre of zodiac decoration was sold in Sotheby’s London, 31 March 2021, lot 75.
The rest of the imagery on our casket also relates to eclipses with no references to the planets found. The top panels are decorated with the solar motif of the sphinx (Spink, op.cit., p.766). The sphinxes' tails, typically shown with a dragon’s head, here are in the form of a hare’s head. This may relate to the constellation of the hare which rose with Gemini – the point of Jawzahr’s greatest power – around the year 1200 (Willy Hartner, ‘The Vaso Vascovali in the British Museum. A Study on Islamic Astrological Iconography’, Kunst des Orients, 9, 1973, p.112) which supports a late 12th or early 13th century dating for our casket.
The majority of inscriptions of our box are benedictory in nature of types found repeatedly in metalwork of the period. An anonymous owner is referred to twice which may suggest that fine boxes such as this were manufactured for a market rather than individual as commissions. Despite the very high quality of work, the Bobrinsky bucket was commissioned for one Khwaja Rukh al-Din ‘pride of merchants’ and therefore it seems that fine inlaid metalwork was produced for wealthy middle-class patrons (Spink, op.cit, pp.182-84). Although the use it not known, the astrological motifs of our box may have been intended as talismanic and to protect the owner. A similarly decorated ewer from Herat, now in the Museum of Georgian History, Tblisi (MS 135), is inscribed ‘Seven heavenly bodies, however proud they may be, are protection for the one who works so’.
It is highly likely that the form of our casket relates to a prototype in silver, as with many other early Islamic metalwork forms (see Spink, op.cit, pp.317-318). The rectangular box with bevelled lid is seen on two examples that were found in the Harari hoard in Iran (Pope and Ackerman, A Survey of Persian Art. From Prehistoric Times to the present, London, 1938-39, pls. 1352a and 1352b). As with our casket, the Harari boxes have external straps which are not structurally necessary but suggest that the original form was made from panels of organic materials, likely wood or ivory, secured by fastenings.
Our casket can be related to a group of eight closely related examples of this copper-alloy group. Four include images of Jawzahr within roundels. The first is in the Keir collection (Geza Fehervari, Islamic Metalwork of the 8th to the 15th century in the Keir Collection, London, 1976, pp. 76-7, no.85, pl. 27a), another, which has cartouches of Jawzahr on the sides, elephants and camel riders on the front and the seven planetary figures on the base, is in the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MW.10.1997). The third is a box with images of Jawzahr on the body alongside horsemen shooting arrows was exhibited in Geneva in 1985 (Toby Falk (ed.), Treasures of Islam, Geneva and London, 1985, p.260, no.266). Notably the Geneva box also depicts spinxes with hare’s heads on their tails. The fourth, which places Jawzahr in a roundel in the flat centre of the lid, is in a private collection.
The other four boxes lack the depiction of Jawzahr but are related to the present lot in form, inscriptions and medallion decoration. One, with rosettes representing the planets, is in the Khalili Collection (MTW 1286). Another box includes similar benedictory inscriptions in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (D 567). The final box, which is missing its original lid but which has similar vases containing entwined stems on the back, was formerly in the collection of F.R. Martin and now in the National Museum, Stockholm (60 / 1899).
An exceptional silver-inlaid bronze candlestick of similar date with Jawzahr on each faced side was sold in these rooms, 15 October 2002, lot 199. Another vessel, a silver-inlaid inkwell, with Jawzahr at the centre of zodiac decoration was sold in Sotheby’s London, 31 March 2021, lot 75.