Page 31 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

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A SILK LAMPAS FRAGMENT A MAMLUK PIERCED BRASS HANGING LAMP
NASRID SPAIN, 15TH CENTURY EGYPT OR SYRIA, BODY LATE 15TH CENTURY, KNOP LATE 13TH This lot belongs to an intriguing group of hexagonal metal mosque lamps
Woven with a lion and stylised foliage on a green ground, mounted CENTURY associated with the Burji Mamluk and Ottoman courts. Examples known
Fragment 6¬ x 2ºin. (17 x 6cm.); mount 9 x 4ºin. (23 x 10.5cm.) Of tapering hexagonal form, the silver-inlaid domed knop, from a different to exist in the Ottoman context include one in the Museum of Turkish
original lamp, with a similarly shaped finial and hanging loop and decorated and Islamic Arts, Istanbul which bears the name of Sultan Bayezid II (r.
£5,000-7,000 US$5,800-8,000 with floral motifs and a kufic honorific inscription interrupted by three circular 1481-1512) around the top (N. Ölçer et al., Museum of Turkish and Islamic
€5,700-8,000
blazons each with a single-headed eagle, each side panel pierced and Art, Istanbul, 2002, p.246). In the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, there
engraved with scrolling floral designs around a central similar roundel, a panel
This elegant silk textile fragment shows a lion which would originally have is a monumental lamp with the blazon of al-Ashraf Qaitbay (r. 1468-1496),
of honorific thuluth above and below, two of the sides with hinged doors which
been depicted as a pair of confronting lions on either side of a stylized tree. which may have once hung in his funerary complex. More information about
close together along the side ridge
The lions on this textile have been compared to a Granadan textile bearing this group of lamps can be found in Doris Behrens-Abouseif's Mamluk and
14qin. (37cm.) high
Nasrid heraldic emblems and rampant lions, which possibly served as the Post-Mamluk Metal Lamps (Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire,
model. Variants of this pattern, depicting slightly different plant forms or £40,000-60,000 US$46,000-69,000 1997).
€46,000-68,000
animals demonstrate that these textiles were produced in large numbers
although only a handful of fragments have survived today. Similar fragments Although it is anonymous, the word 'al-'alim' (the learned) is repeated around
are found in a number of European museums. Our fragment is the same PROVENANCE: the side panels. This is reminiscent of surviving Mamluk glassware, including
Anon sale, Christie's, London, 10 October 1989, lot 532
design as a larger fragment in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (inv. a goblet in the British Museum (G42/dc8), a bottle in the Gulbenkian (M.
no.11.23). Further similar textiles in the museum’s collection include inv. no. Q. Ribeiroand J. O. Hallet, Vidros da Dinastia Mameluca no Museu Calouste
INSCRIPTIONS:
25.120.453, 20.94.1, and 1981.372. Around the top: possibly Arabic benedictions wa’l-izz al-d[a’im] | wa’l-khalid(?) Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1999) and a glass mosque lamp in the Metropolitan
| wa’l-salim(?), 'And perpetual glory and eternal(?) and secure(?)' Museum of Art (Inv. No. 17.190.992). The knop is not original to the lamp, but
Around the sides: repetitions of al-'alim, 'The learned' seems to have been created a few centuries earlier under the Bahri Mamluks.
The blazons, featuring eagles looking to the right, may correspond with
the coat of arms of the Amir Musa b. 'Ali b. Qalawun (d.1318), a grandson of
Sultan Qalawun (L. A. Mayer, Saracenic Heraldry, Oxford, 1933, p.169).

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AN ALHAMBRA-STYLE BRONZE VASE
RETAILED BY TIFFANY & CO, NEW YORK, LATE 19TH/EARLY 20TH
CENTURY
The surface decorated in electroplate with arabesques, foliage, animals and
calligraphy, the body with two horn-shaped handles, edge of foor stamped
'TIFFANY & CO.'
21æin. (54cm.) high
£15,000-20,000 US$18,000-23,000
€18,000-23,000
The design of this vase was inspired by medieval Spanish Nasrid, or so-
called Alhambra, vases. The amphora-like Alhambra design dates from the
thirteenth to fifteenth centuries and, while examples have been found in
other areas of the Mediterranean, they are usually associated with southern
Spain. Their purpose seems to have been purely decorative, and their large
wing-like handles serve simply to provide greater surface for decoration. A
pair of these vases, one stamped by Tiffany Studios as ours, sold Christie's,
New York, 20 April 2006, lot 42 and 16 April 2015, lot 166.

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28 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty 29
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.