Lot Essay
This magnificent and powerful dish combines an overall concept which clearly has a Sassanian origin with an execution and some more minor details which belie its creation during the Islamic period after the Sassanian heyday. Its combination of slightly cruder workmanship, when compared to that of the 5th century dishes, and the quirkiness of some of the drawing, strongly support a dating to the late 7th or 8th century.
There is a small number of related dishes, each showing heraldic animal(s) within a lappet border, each also executed in the shallow relief carving seen here with an absence of repoussé decoration. An example in the Hermitage Museum (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, vol.IV, pl.232A) shows two confronted rams flanking a tree within a border of linked heart-motifs. A dish in the British Museum (Pope, A.U.: op.cit., pl.227) has a senmurv within a border which is almost identical to ours. A further example with central tiger set against a stylised tree within a scrolling flowering border is also in the Hermitage (Pope, A.U.: op.cit., pl.204, there dated to within the Sassanian period). A simplified version of the latter design is in the same Museum (Pope, A.U.: op.cit, pl.232B). The majority of these, unlike the present dish, fill the lower part of the central roundel with a fish-pond. The present vessel substitutes for this paired rams confronting a tree, a motif seen as the main decorative design on the first comparable dish mentioned above. The linked heart motifs, which form the border in two of the dishes above, can also be seen running down the breast of our griffin.
The appearance of the tip of the second wing is also a feature seen on some but not all of these dishes. This can also be found on carvings of the Sassanian period such as those at Taq-i Bustan (Pope, A.U.: op.cit., pl.166). In a few dishes of the late- or post-Sassanian period the second wing appears in full the other side of the front of the animal, such as one a dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Harper, Prudence O.: 'An Eighth century Silver Plate from Iran with a Mythological Scene', in Ettinghausen, R. (ed.): Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972, p.155). As here, the griffin there depicted has pronounced genitalia with foliate terminal, but the execution is more rarified and the proportions of the animal considerably more attenuated. An earlier but also closely related depiction of a griffin is on a dish in the Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin (Harper, P.O.: op.cit., pl.9, p.161). The second wing is again seen in the carving of a griffin on the facade of the Palaca of al-Walid II at Mshatta (Gierlichs, J.: Drache: Phoenix: Doppeladler, Berlin, 1993, ill. p.9). The postures of the two griffins are also very close: both have the offside front leg raised and the tail scrolling up above the rump. The division of the wings is the same, although the Mshatta griffin has more pronounced ears.
The present piece uses a simplified method for indicating surface, combining ring-matting, chased lines, and rows of tiny dots, sometimes thereby forming other shapes, which is thought to be typical of late- and post-Sassanian workmanship. The earlier surface indications were achieved with more even matting techniques.
There is a small number of related dishes, each showing heraldic animal(s) within a lappet border, each also executed in the shallow relief carving seen here with an absence of repoussé decoration. An example in the Hermitage Museum (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, vol.IV, pl.232A) shows two confronted rams flanking a tree within a border of linked heart-motifs. A dish in the British Museum (Pope, A.U.: op.cit., pl.227) has a senmurv within a border which is almost identical to ours. A further example with central tiger set against a stylised tree within a scrolling flowering border is also in the Hermitage (Pope, A.U.: op.cit., pl.204, there dated to within the Sassanian period). A simplified version of the latter design is in the same Museum (Pope, A.U.: op.cit, pl.232B). The majority of these, unlike the present dish, fill the lower part of the central roundel with a fish-pond. The present vessel substitutes for this paired rams confronting a tree, a motif seen as the main decorative design on the first comparable dish mentioned above. The linked heart motifs, which form the border in two of the dishes above, can also be seen running down the breast of our griffin.
The appearance of the tip of the second wing is also a feature seen on some but not all of these dishes. This can also be found on carvings of the Sassanian period such as those at Taq-i Bustan (Pope, A.U.: op.cit., pl.166). In a few dishes of the late- or post-Sassanian period the second wing appears in full the other side of the front of the animal, such as one a dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Harper, Prudence O.: 'An Eighth century Silver Plate from Iran with a Mythological Scene', in Ettinghausen, R. (ed.): Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972, p.155). As here, the griffin there depicted has pronounced genitalia with foliate terminal, but the execution is more rarified and the proportions of the animal considerably more attenuated. An earlier but also closely related depiction of a griffin is on a dish in the Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin (Harper, P.O.: op.cit., pl.9, p.161). The second wing is again seen in the carving of a griffin on the facade of the Palaca of al-Walid II at Mshatta (Gierlichs, J.: Drache: Phoenix: Doppeladler, Berlin, 1993, ill. p.9). The postures of the two griffins are also very close: both have the offside front leg raised and the tail scrolling up above the rump. The division of the wings is the same, although the Mshatta griffin has more pronounced ears.
The present piece uses a simplified method for indicating surface, combining ring-matting, chased lines, and rows of tiny dots, sometimes thereby forming other shapes, which is thought to be typical of late- and post-Sassanian workmanship. The earlier surface indications were achieved with more even matting techniques.