Lot 8
A SILVER-INLAID BRONZE BOTTLE
SYRIA OR JAZIRA, 13TH CENTURY
Auction: 09 December 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
of globular form on a short ring foot with tall cylindrical neck and narrow flared-out rim, the decoration comprising three registers, the neck with a band of repeating kufic-style alifs within a narrow band of rope design above, and a narrow band of repeat circles below, followed by band of floral rosettes alternating with leafy palmettes around the shoulder, followed by a wide band of small tear-shaped cartouches on a ground of leafy palmettes, the lower section with a narrow band of the same design around the neck, repeating kufic-style alifs, remains of silver inlay in parts
Dimensions
17cm high
Footnote
This unusual bottle displays features which suggest an origin in 13th century Syria, or possibly further afield in the Jazira region. The rosette repeated around the top of the shoulder, where it divides the inscription, is one of the earliest known emblems used by the Ayyubid and early Mamluk rulers. More commonly found with six petals, the eight-petalled examples seen here are only known to have been used by one amir, Musa b. Yaghmur (1203-1264/5), who served under the Ayyubid sultans al-Malik al-Salih and al-Mu’azzam Turanshah as well as the first great Mamluk sultan Baybars I. His rosette appears on a copper vase formerly in the Harari collection as well as a ceramic pilgrim flask (inv. no. NM 0131/1935) in the Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm (Mayer, L. A., Saracenic Heraldry, Oxford University Press: 1933, p. 171 and Florence, E. D., “Some Islamic Pilgrim Bottles” in Berytus: Archaeological Studies 2, 1935, pp. 5–10). The use of ‘animated’ pseudo-kufic inscriptions in the bands around the upper shoulder and the widest point of the body, where the tops of ascenders end in human heads, is paralleled in other Syro-Jaziran metalwork such as the candlestick now in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (inv. no 57.148), which is signed Abu Bakr b. Hajji Jaldak and dated 622/1225 [Rice, D.S., “The Oldest Dated ‘Mosul Candlestick” in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 91, No. 561 (Dec., 1949), pp. 334, 336-341).