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Lot Essay
This appears to be a unique object, a silver inlaid brass penbox, a form that it quintessentially Islamic, but produced in Venice for a member of one of the leading families of the Serenissima. It makes a very interesting comparison to the previous lot, indubitably made by a Muslim craftsman, but for the Western market. There are various features, apart form the prominent central armorial, which make it clear that this penbox is part of the group of inlaid brass vessels that are attributed with relatively little controversy to European craftsmen working in Venice, working in the idiom that had been imported from the Islamic world.
The surface is divided up into panels by raised bands onto which have been hammered silver wire which at times expand and split in the form of arabesques, which were also silver overlaid, but using sheet metal keyed in around the edges with an engraved band, and further encouraged by pouncing through the silver to the brass body. Much of the wire remains; the sheet has however mostly disappeared over time. The designs are very similar to those produced in the Islamic World, but denser, using more complex knot-motifs, and are more exuberantly curvilinear in feel. Similar work is seen on a number of dishes, for example a spectacular example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, also with central Italian armorial, bought at Christie’s from the Bernal collection in 1855 (inv.no.2061.1855; Sylvia Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam, and Mahmud the Kurd – a Metalworking Enigma, London, 2004, no5.27, pp.235-6). The same publication illustrates further closely related examples.
The interior shows clear traces of its original divisions into compartments. At the front is one long compartment, for pens. The back half is divided into three compartments, with two squares flanking a central rectangle. This is the arrangement one would expect for a square, probably glass, inkwell and a matching sand shaker. One sees this format later, but it is very rare in the renaissance period. On the other hand, for a trader who was dealing extensively with trade with the East, where a pencase is known as a prominent symbol of power, it would have been instantly recognised by the merchants he encountered. And, just as with today’s computer logos, the direction of the armorial in relation to the hinges is such that it is intended to be seen by the observer, not the owner. The same orientation, as well as interior divided for pens, inkwell, and sand pot is demonstrated in an unusual almost contemporaneous penbox now in the Metropolitan Museum now attributed to early 16th century Iran, signed by the engraver Hassan Ramadan Shahi and the manufacturer and calligrapher Mawla Yusuf Naqqash Farisi (inv.no.1975.350.1a–c; "Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York" in The Arts of Islam, Berlin, 1981. no. 58, pp. 150–51, ill. p. 151). The links of the Venetian versions of “Veneto-Saracenic” metalwork with contemporaneous Iranian metalwork, proposed as a mainstay theory in her book on Mahmud al-Kurdi by Sylvia Auld (op.cit.) are clearly reinforced in the current penbox. Certain elements in our penbox show a clear knowledge and understanding of Persianate source material – the border design used in the upper left and lower right quadrants for example has a very similar structure to that of Tabriz medallion carpets, especially the way the terminal leaves lie across the meandering vine stems – see for example lot 128 in this sale.
The arms are almost certainly those of the Giustiniani family, a very prominent family in 14th-17th century Venice who also had bases in Genoa and elsewhere. Five of their palazzi survive in the city of Venice, four of which overlook the grand canal. Interestingly they were also the owners of the island of Chios with its monopoly on the production of mastic, that rare substance highly prized by the Romans, the Byzantines, and subsequently the Ottomans under whom it was worth its weight in gold. The initial I can, and frequently did stand for Giustiniani, in its Latin form Iustiniani; some members of the family claimed direct descent from the Roman Emperor Justinian. It has not however been possible to identify a member of the family with double P first names. This highly prestigious penbox would have been an appropriate and immediately recognisable demonstration of importance within the Islamic world for a member of such a prominent family.
The surface is divided up into panels by raised bands onto which have been hammered silver wire which at times expand and split in the form of arabesques, which were also silver overlaid, but using sheet metal keyed in around the edges with an engraved band, and further encouraged by pouncing through the silver to the brass body. Much of the wire remains; the sheet has however mostly disappeared over time. The designs are very similar to those produced in the Islamic World, but denser, using more complex knot-motifs, and are more exuberantly curvilinear in feel. Similar work is seen on a number of dishes, for example a spectacular example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, also with central Italian armorial, bought at Christie’s from the Bernal collection in 1855 (inv.no.2061.1855; Sylvia Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam, and Mahmud the Kurd – a Metalworking Enigma, London, 2004, no5.27, pp.235-6). The same publication illustrates further closely related examples.
The interior shows clear traces of its original divisions into compartments. At the front is one long compartment, for pens. The back half is divided into three compartments, with two squares flanking a central rectangle. This is the arrangement one would expect for a square, probably glass, inkwell and a matching sand shaker. One sees this format later, but it is very rare in the renaissance period. On the other hand, for a trader who was dealing extensively with trade with the East, where a pencase is known as a prominent symbol of power, it would have been instantly recognised by the merchants he encountered. And, just as with today’s computer logos, the direction of the armorial in relation to the hinges is such that it is intended to be seen by the observer, not the owner. The same orientation, as well as interior divided for pens, inkwell, and sand pot is demonstrated in an unusual almost contemporaneous penbox now in the Metropolitan Museum now attributed to early 16th century Iran, signed by the engraver Hassan Ramadan Shahi and the manufacturer and calligrapher Mawla Yusuf Naqqash Farisi (inv.no.1975.350.1a–c; "Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York" in The Arts of Islam, Berlin, 1981. no. 58, pp. 150–51, ill. p. 151). The links of the Venetian versions of “Veneto-Saracenic” metalwork with contemporaneous Iranian metalwork, proposed as a mainstay theory in her book on Mahmud al-Kurdi by Sylvia Auld (op.cit.) are clearly reinforced in the current penbox. Certain elements in our penbox show a clear knowledge and understanding of Persianate source material – the border design used in the upper left and lower right quadrants for example has a very similar structure to that of Tabriz medallion carpets, especially the way the terminal leaves lie across the meandering vine stems – see for example lot 128 in this sale.
The arms are almost certainly those of the Giustiniani family, a very prominent family in 14th-17th century Venice who also had bases in Genoa and elsewhere. Five of their palazzi survive in the city of Venice, four of which overlook the grand canal. Interestingly they were also the owners of the island of Chios with its monopoly on the production of mastic, that rare substance highly prized by the Romans, the Byzantines, and subsequently the Ottomans under whom it was worth its weight in gold. The initial I can, and frequently did stand for Giustiniani, in its Latin form Iustiniani; some members of the family claimed direct descent from the Roman Emperor Justinian. It has not however been possible to identify a member of the family with double P first names. This highly prestigious penbox would have been an appropriate and immediately recognisable demonstration of importance within the Islamic world for a member of such a prominent family.