Page 205 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

to-back ducks and a minute, undulating design.
These features distinguish the piece, in both style
and quality, from other Mamluk works in metal
with star-polygon strapwork on their bases. It is
also difficult to find parallels for the basin's other
decoration in brasswork made for Qa'it Bay or in
wares made for the Italian market. j. M. R.

96

COLLECTED POEMS OF AMIR
HlDAYATALLAH (HlDAYAT)

1478
Iranian, Aqqoyunlu Turcoman
c
73 folios, in Azeri Turkish, nasta liq on cream,
semi-polished, gold-sprinkled paper, 2 columns of
ii lines; with a binding of contemporary brown
stamped leather with filigree doublures over gold
and blue
7
folio 17.5 x 12.7 (6 /s x 5J; written surface 11 x 6.8
3
5
(4 /8X2 / 8)
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin,
MS 401, fol. yob

The Aqqoyunlu ruler Khahl Sultan, son of Uzun
Hasan, to whom this volume is dedicated on the
frontispiece (folios ib-aa), was killed in a battle Turcoman Court style, are only vaguely related to 97
c
with his brother Ya qub Beg after a reign of the text of the poems and show a princely figure
only seven months. The manuscript has no colo- in a variety of pursuits: drinking by a stream PEN CASE WITH INKWELL
phon and was evidently left unfinished on the (folio 3b); mounted with a falconer and shield-
sultan's death. bearer (folio ±9b); seated on a balcony (folio 38b); c. 1500
Iranian, Aqqoyunlu
Turcoman
or Ottoman
Turkey
The manuscript has a fine illuminated double- and drinking in an arbor (folio 7ob). One or more gold, silver, mother-of-pearl, turquoise, rubies, and
page frontispiece (folios ib-zb) and opening text of the images may be intended as portraits of amethysts
page (folio zb). The four miniatures, in the finest Khalil Sultan. j. M . R . length 25 (9 / 5)
4
references: Menavino 1551, 121, 132-133; London
1982,17-33; Uzun$ar§ih 1986, 23-76; Koseoglu
1987, no. no
Topkapi Sarayi Muzesi, Istanbul
The minuteness, variety, and complexity of its
workmanship make this pen case a masterpiece of
the goldsmith's art. The two barrels, body, and cap
of the inkwell are silver openwork with finely
chased and nielloed split palmettes; the openwork
supports a mosaic of mother-of-pearl, sliced tur-
quoise (firuzekari), rubies, and amethysts.
The gold stoppers of the pen case and the cover
of the inkwell are attached by golden chains. This
flat gold cover has a circular hole in the center
with a lid attached to two small hinged bars of
reddish gold with champleve floral ornament. To
judge from the bottom of the inkwell, the under-
lay of both it and the cover is silver with minute
floret-scrolls strongly reminiscent of early
sixteenth-century Ottoman illumination. The lid
is decorated similarly on both sides with minute
chinoiserie florets, each embossed with a tiny
turquoise at the center. The cover has densely
scrolling, heavily chased gold arabesques on a
nielloed ground. The caps closing the barrels are

204 CIRCA 1492