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Lot Essay
These magnificent armlets belong to a small group of exceptionally elaborate gold jewellery produced in the Iranian and eastern Mediterranean worlds in the 11th century. Closely related examples are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (57.88a–c), found in Gurgan, and the Freer Gallery of Art (F1958.6). Notably, the backs of the four cylinders forming the corners of the clasp of the Metropolitan armlet were made using coins of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Qadir (d.1031), probably struck at Nishapur and apparently new when incorporated into the armlet (Marilyn Jenkins and Manuel Keene, Islamic Jewellery in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, p.40, no.16). The companion piece is in the Freer Gallery of Art (F1958.6).
Both pairs show strong archaizing tendencies and belong to a jewellery tradition in which forms and techniques remained remarkably consistent over several centuries. The distinctive combination of a twisted tubular hoop, finely worked filigree and granulation, and multiple hemispherical elements finds a close parallel in an 11th century gold armlet sold at Sotheby’s London, 30 March 2022, lot 90, catalogued as Seljuq Persia or Anatolia. It shares the present pair’s arrangement of hemispherical elements decorated with granulation and encircled by smaller beads, although its broad, flat hoop differs from the twisted hoops of the Metropolitan and Freer examples.
The possibility of a Syrian origin is supported by a related group of gold jewellery attributed to Syria. A gold armlet in the Freer Gallery of Art (F1948.25) is attributed to Fatimid Syria and dated to the 11th century, while a pair of repoussé gold bracelets sold at Sotheby’s London, 29 October 2025, lot 127, was attributed to Syria, 11th–12th century. The latter, with a clasp formed of six cylinders decorated with granulation, belongs to a Syrian tradition that was indebted to contemporaneous Iranian jewellery. Related armlets are also preserved in the National Museum, Damascus.
An unusual silver bracelet attributed to Iran, 11th–12th century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1981.232.3) similarly employs several of the same decorative elements as the present armlets. A group of jewellery from this tradition was sold in these Rooms on 26 October 2023, lot 40.
Both pairs show strong archaizing tendencies and belong to a jewellery tradition in which forms and techniques remained remarkably consistent over several centuries. The distinctive combination of a twisted tubular hoop, finely worked filigree and granulation, and multiple hemispherical elements finds a close parallel in an 11th century gold armlet sold at Sotheby’s London, 30 March 2022, lot 90, catalogued as Seljuq Persia or Anatolia. It shares the present pair’s arrangement of hemispherical elements decorated with granulation and encircled by smaller beads, although its broad, flat hoop differs from the twisted hoops of the Metropolitan and Freer examples.
The possibility of a Syrian origin is supported by a related group of gold jewellery attributed to Syria. A gold armlet in the Freer Gallery of Art (F1948.25) is attributed to Fatimid Syria and dated to the 11th century, while a pair of repoussé gold bracelets sold at Sotheby’s London, 29 October 2025, lot 127, was attributed to Syria, 11th–12th century. The latter, with a clasp formed of six cylinders decorated with granulation, belongs to a Syrian tradition that was indebted to contemporaneous Iranian jewellery. Related armlets are also preserved in the National Museum, Damascus.
An unusual silver bracelet attributed to Iran, 11th–12th century in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1981.232.3) similarly employs several of the same decorative elements as the present armlets. A group of jewellery from this tradition was sold in these Rooms on 26 October 2023, lot 40.