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Lot Essay
The shape of this dish relates to a small group - all with a rounded base with no foot, and an inverted rim with a triangular section. Though the form is quite homogenous, the decoration of the group is not. The most remarkable example is without doubt the brass dish in the al-Thani collection, inlaid with silver, copper and an unidentified black substance, which has been associated with Syria or Palestine and attributed to the 7th or 8th century. The rich figural decorative programme has been described as a celebration of the Nile, and includes many elements familiar from late Antique visual culture. It is currently being exhibited at the 2025 Islamic Arts Biennale, Diriyah (acc.no.ATC635, published And all that is in between, 2025, p.248).
Though the al-Thani dish remains exceptional in terms of its decorative programme, similar to it in shape is a dish in the collection of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin (acc.no.I.5624). That dish does not seem to have been inlaid, and features a design of radiating arches containing scrolling vines, around a central roundel containing a depiction of a domed building. Though attributed to the 7th or 8th century, the museum suggests that their dish was made in Iran. A further published example from the group is in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (V. P. Darkevich, hudozhestvennii metall vostoka, Moscow, 1976, pl.44). In 1978 that dish was the subject of an article by Boris Marshak who identified it as Iranian, having been made in the 9th or 10th centuries. It is decorated with a dense design of flowers issuing from a central vase. The rendering of the leaves is quite similar to those which appear on the Berlin dish. However, the Moscow dish is in bronze and has a chevron pattern to the rim encircling a band of paired scrolling motifs. These are surrounded by plain dotted lines around the entire circumference of the dish, all of which is very similar to that on the present lot.
If the decoration on the al-Thani dish is to be understood as typically Umayyad, then the decoration on our dish - and that in St Petersburg - is typically Abbasid. The paired curling motifs are similar to those which were excavated by Ernst Herzfeld in Samarra. According to his typology, our dish is most evocative of the 'C-style' of decoration. This was found carved in stucco, as on a large panel in the Museum für Islamische Kunst which came from a house near the palace (acc.no.I.3468.2). However, according to Herzfeld's sketches individual pairs of 'winged palmette leaves' were found on a collapsed arcade inside the main place itself (Matthew D. Saba, 'A Restricted Gaze: the ornament of the main caliphal palace in Samarra', Muqarnas, 32, 2015. fig.23, p.176). It is also known to have been carved into wood, as on some fragments in the British Museum, London (acc.no.1944,0513.2). Given the profusion of this motif across media, it is highly likely that it also found its way onto portable objects, including metalwork.
Though the al-Thani dish remains exceptional in terms of its decorative programme, similar to it in shape is a dish in the collection of the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin (acc.no.I.5624). That dish does not seem to have been inlaid, and features a design of radiating arches containing scrolling vines, around a central roundel containing a depiction of a domed building. Though attributed to the 7th or 8th century, the museum suggests that their dish was made in Iran. A further published example from the group is in the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (V. P. Darkevich, hudozhestvennii metall vostoka, Moscow, 1976, pl.44). In 1978 that dish was the subject of an article by Boris Marshak who identified it as Iranian, having been made in the 9th or 10th centuries. It is decorated with a dense design of flowers issuing from a central vase. The rendering of the leaves is quite similar to those which appear on the Berlin dish. However, the Moscow dish is in bronze and has a chevron pattern to the rim encircling a band of paired scrolling motifs. These are surrounded by plain dotted lines around the entire circumference of the dish, all of which is very similar to that on the present lot.
If the decoration on the al-Thani dish is to be understood as typically Umayyad, then the decoration on our dish - and that in St Petersburg - is typically Abbasid. The paired curling motifs are similar to those which were excavated by Ernst Herzfeld in Samarra. According to his typology, our dish is most evocative of the 'C-style' of decoration. This was found carved in stucco, as on a large panel in the Museum für Islamische Kunst which came from a house near the palace (acc.no.I.3468.2). However, according to Herzfeld's sketches individual pairs of 'winged palmette leaves' were found on a collapsed arcade inside the main place itself (Matthew D. Saba, 'A Restricted Gaze: the ornament of the main caliphal palace in Samarra', Muqarnas, 32, 2015. fig.23, p.176). It is also known to have been carved into wood, as on some fragments in the British Museum, London (acc.no.1944,0513.2). Given the profusion of this motif across media, it is highly likely that it also found its way onto portable objects, including metalwork.