Page 103 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

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A SILVER REPOUSSÉ BOWL
OTTOMAN BALKANS, 18TH CENTURY
Decorated with a series of animals and birds surrounded by floral vine, around
a central roundel with a confronted lion and bear, overall good condition
5¡in. (13.7cm.) diam.
£4,000-6,000 US$5,700-8,400
€4,700-6,900
It was Marian Wenzel who made the compelling argument that the group of
vessels to which this bowl belongs was probably produced in, or by craftsmen
from, the Balkans (Marian Wenzel, ‘Early Ottoman Silver and Iznik Pottery Design’,
Apollo, September 1989, p.160). The military annexation of the Balkans brought
the integration of the rich silver mines of Bosnia and Serbia into the Ottoman
Empire, and as a consequence also lured the skilled silversmiths to Istanbul.
The Balkan countries were the main source of silver within the Ottoman Empire
– Serbia’s richest mine, Novo Brdo, fell to the Turks in 1455 and Mehmet the
Conqueror captured Bosnia and therein its biggest mine, Srebenica, in 1463. With
that, the Balkan and Ottoman influences in silver work began to mix.
Production of this type of silver began in the early sixteenth century, coinciding
with the appearance of animals on Iznik vessels (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian
Raby, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, pp.256-258), and
continued into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Like other silver
bowls from this group, the cavetto is decorated with a lively scene of animals
and birds in chase including dogs, hares and snakes among others. In keeping
with the zoomorphic cavetto the central cartouche displays a lion and bear in
combat which is comparable to an eighteenth century Ottoman Balkans silver
bowl in the National Museum, Belgrade (inv.no. 1568).

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A PARCEL-GILT SILVER REPOUSSÉ BOWL
OTTOMAN TURKEY, PERIOD OF SULTAN 'ABD AL-MAJID I (R. 1839-61)
Decorated with a repeated design of musical instruments and flowers, the foot
similarly decorated, the rim in the form of leafy vine, the interior stamped with
a tughra of Sultan 'Abd al-Majid I, with three suspension loops and suspension
chain, minor tarnishing, traces of gilding, overall good condition
10ºin. (26.1cm.) diam.
£6,000-8,000 US$8,400-11,000
€7,000-9,200
A pair of zarfs with comparable decoration of musical instruments and
flowers stamped with the tughra of 'Abd al-Majid I are published in Garo 90
Kurkman, Ottoman Silvermarks, Istanbul, 1996, p.193.

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