Page 161 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

~136
A GOLD-OVERLAID SWORD (KILIJ) 137
THE BLADE SIGNED BY MURAD BIN KHUSHQADAM, A LARGE SILVER AND PARCEL-GILT PENCASE (DIVIT)
OTTOMAN TURKEY, 16TH CENTURY
SIGNED MUS[T]AFA, OTTOMAN TURKEY, MID-18TH CENTURY
The single-edged curving watered steel blade double-edged at the Of typical form but unusually large and fine, with squat inkwell, the coffered This divit, or scribe’s case, is a large and extremely fine example of the type
tip, one side overlaid in floral designs, arabesques and an inscription, ends and upper and lower sections of the well in gilt decorated with tight
th
watered steel cross-guard, the hilt with plain walrus ivory grips, the niello scrolls and an openwork fringe, the double-hinged gilt lid of the inkwell popular at the Ottoman court from the early 18 century. Another, very
blade rubbed with most gold missing set with a red paste stone on the outside and the inside repoussé gilt with a similar in its style and decoration is the Topkapi Saray Muzesi (inv.C.Y.366;
36win. (93.5cm.) long published Topkapi à Versailles. Trésors de la Cour ottomane, exhibition
calligraphic design of the names of The Seven Sleepers, tughra of Mahmud catalogue, Paris, 1999, p.167, no.118). Another bearing the tughra of Ahmed III,
£12,000-18,000 US$14,000-21,000 I stamped on the base of the inkwell and on the side of the penbox, maker's and dated AH 1139/1726 AD, is in the Bernadete Collection (Garo Kürkman,
€14,000-20,000 mark stamped on the upper ridge of the pen-box
15¡in. (39cm.) long Ottoman Silver Marks, Istanbul, 1996, p.152-53). Like ours, the interior of the
Though born in Mamluk Syria, Murad ibn Khushqadam is known lids of both pencases bear the names of the Seven Sleepers arranged within
£30,000-40,000 US$35,000-46,000
to have been one of the swordsmiths working for Sultan Sulayman a star of David. The maker of our pencase is unrecorded.
€35,000-46,000
I (r.1520-66). The movement of craftspeople between the Mamluk
and Ottoman domains in the sixteenth century is well attested, as
PROVENANCE:
the Ottoman court either lured or abducted the best craftsmen
The Berkeley Trust Collection, sold Sotheby's, London, 12 October 2004, lot 92
from conquered territories in Iran and the Levant to work for
them. Thus, the signature of another Mamluk sword maker, EXHIBITED:
al-Hajj Sunqur, appears on blades made both for the Mamluk Treasures of Islam, Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, 1985
Sultan al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri (r. 1501-16) and for the Ottoman
LITERATURE:
sultan Bayezid II (r.1481-1512). Swords bearing ibn Khushqadam's
Toby Falk, Treasures of Islam, exhibition catalogue, Geneva, 1985, no.174
signature are kept in the Museum for Islamic Art, Cairo (Inv. no.
3647), and the Museum für Deutsche Geschichte in Berlin (L. A.
Mayer, Islamic Armourers and their Works, Geneva, 1962, pl.XVI).
Further swords of his have been offered in these Rooms, 15
October 1996, lot 203, and a particularly fine gold-inlaid example
on 26 April 2012, lot 241.

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