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Lot Essay
This example is inscribed with some of the most commonly encountered verses on inscribed Safavid candlesticks. The translation here is that in A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8-18th centuries, London, 1982, p. 309.
In the main cartouches Persian couplets: ‘I remember one night as my eyes wouldn’t close; I heard the butterfly tell the candle; I am stricken with love, if I burn ‘tis right; But why do you weep, why burn yourself out?’
Owner's inscription: banda-yi shah-i vilayat haji kharrat(?) ‘Slave of the king of trusteeship (i.e. ‘Ali), Haji Kharrat(?)’
The name Kharrat here may be a misspelling of the word kharrāt which means a ‘turner’
The mash'al or pillar candlestick/torch stand is a form that appears to have come to Iran from India. The earliest dated example of the form is in the Imam Reza Shrine Museum in Mashhad (Melikian Chirvani, op.cit.,1982, p.263; illustrated in Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, pls.130-1, pp.115, 117-8). Its inscriptions make it clear that it was made by the Fakir master Da'ud, foundryman, in Lahore, 14 October 1539, designed by Iskandar b. Shukrullah in India.
The present example is very similar in its decoration and form to one in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, which bears a date added after the original manufacture, when it was donated to the shrine at Samarra in 1561-2 AD (Melikian-Chirvani, op.cit., pp.264-5 incl. fig.65). Both examples are decorated on a single-hatched ground. This feature was in favour by the reign of Shah Abbas in the last quarter of the 16th century. It is noteworthy to mention that our example has both of its original handles intact, which are often lost on surviving examples.
In the main cartouches Persian couplets: ‘I remember one night as my eyes wouldn’t close; I heard the butterfly tell the candle; I am stricken with love, if I burn ‘tis right; But why do you weep, why burn yourself out?’
Owner's inscription: banda-yi shah-i vilayat haji kharrat(?) ‘Slave of the king of trusteeship (i.e. ‘Ali), Haji Kharrat(?)’
The name Kharrat here may be a misspelling of the word kharrāt which means a ‘turner’
The mash'al or pillar candlestick/torch stand is a form that appears to have come to Iran from India. The earliest dated example of the form is in the Imam Reza Shrine Museum in Mashhad (Melikian Chirvani, op.cit.,1982, p.263; illustrated in Mark Zebrowski, Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, London, 1997, pls.130-1, pp.115, 117-8). Its inscriptions make it clear that it was made by the Fakir master Da'ud, foundryman, in Lahore, 14 October 1539, designed by Iskandar b. Shukrullah in India.
The present example is very similar in its decoration and form to one in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, which bears a date added after the original manufacture, when it was donated to the shrine at Samarra in 1561-2 AD (Melikian-Chirvani, op.cit., pp.264-5 incl. fig.65). Both examples are decorated on a single-hatched ground. This feature was in favour by the reign of Shah Abbas in the last quarter of the 16th century. It is noteworthy to mention that our example has both of its original handles intact, which are often lost on surviving examples.