A MAMLUK TINNED-COPPER DISH
Lot 998

A MAMLUK TINNED-COPPER DISH

EGYPT, LATE 15TH CENTURY

Closed10 May 2018

Price Realised

USD 2,750

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A MAMLUK TINNED-COPPER DISH
EGYPT, LATE 15TH CENTURY
With narrow rim, the interior engraved and pounced with a central diaper roundel within a band of inscription cartouches alternating with knotted kufic panels, divided by arabesque and blazon roundels, meandering bands around the rim
15 ¼ in. (38.7 cm.) diam.

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, New York.
Acquired from the estate of the above December 1 1960

Specialist note

The inscriptions in the cartouches around the centre read:

mimma ‘umila bi-rasm al-maqarr al-‘ali (?) … / al-mawlawi al-makhd[u]mi al-sayfi / janbalat al-maliki al-ashrafi

“One of what was made for the Most High Authority … the lordly, the well-served, al-Sayfi Janbalat [officer of] al-Malik al-Ashraf.”

Some mystery surrounds the mamluk Janbalat, for whom this dish was made. The possibility that Janbalat may be identified with the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf (r. 1500-1), known as al-Sayfi Janbalat prior to his brief reign, has been raised by L.A Mayer (Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey, Oxford, 1933) and later by Michael Meinecke ('Zur mamlukischen Heraldik', in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, band 28/2, Mainz, 1972). No conclusive evidence for this identification has yet been discovered.