A MAMLUK ENGRAVED BRASS COVERED BOWL with flat base, stepped and rounded sides with everted ribbed rim, the top covered, partly with hinged cusped opening and associated latch, the base engraved and originally inlaid with an interlace design forming panels filled with floral motifs around a central stellar flowerhead, the sides with elegant naskh bands of Mamluk honorific titles alternating with stylised kufic similar titles with crossed hastae interrupted by roundels containing arabesques and floral motifs or with central blazons surrounded by inverted titles, the cover with floral motifs and blazon roundels, the hinges and clasp cast with delicate floral and arabesque motifs, second half 15th century (rubbed, particularly the cover, original inlay now almost entirely missing, slight splitting around base)

细节

A MAMLUK ENGRAVED BRASS COVERED BOWL with flat base, stepped and rounded sides with everted ribbed rim, the top covered, partly with hinged cusped opening and associated latch, the base engraved and originally inlaid with an interlace design forming panels filled with floral motifs around a central stellar flowerhead, the sides with elegant naskh bands of Mamluk honorific titles alternating with stylised kufic similar titles with crossed hastae interrupted by roundels containing arabesques and floral motifs or with central blazons surrounded by inverted titles, the cover with floral motifs and blazon roundels, the hinges and clasp cast with delicate floral and arabesque motifs, second half 15th century (rubbed, particularly the cover, original inlay now almost entirely missing, slight splitting around base)
5¾in. (14.4cm.) diam.

拍品专文

Two of the four cartouches are inscribed in Mamluk naskh:
'al-maqarr al'ali al-mawlawi al-'alami , al-'amili al-'adili al-ghaz[i] al-malik'

The inscriptions in the other two cartouches are rendered in an unusual script in which the vertical shafts of the letters are crossed in a pincer-like ornament. This feature is associated with brasses of the reign of Sultan Qaitbay (1468-1496 AD). In this bowl these inscriptions are decorative rather than legible. For other examples of this script see a candlestick and a bowl, each bearing the name of Qaitbay (Atil, E.: Renaissance of Islam - Art of the Mamluks, Washington, 1981, nos.34 and 35, pp.100-103). Another bowl made for the same patron with the same features is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. There is also a silver inlaid brass bowl made for an unnamed patron decorated with similar purely decorative script in the Musée du Louvre (Migeon, G.: Musée du Louvre. L'Orient Musulman: Sculpture ..... Cuivres, Paris, 1922, no.113, pl.19).

In the same museum is a gold and silver inlaid brass covered bowl of very similar form and function to the present example, save that the rim has ten or twelve light facets. The arrangement of the lid is precisely the same (Migeon, G.: op.cit. pl.25, no.109, and Migeon, G.: Exposition des Arts Musulmans au Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1903, pl.22 lower)