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Lot Essay
This striking candlestick was commissioned by Asandamur (d.1310 / 11 AD), a Mamluk officer who bore the rank of silahdâr or "bearer of arms". It was produced at a time when the full Mamluk style was maturing into its best-known variant, in which the script became completely dominant. As Rachel Ward notes, ‘During the fourteenth century the egocentric tendencies of the Mamluk amirs became even more explicit on the metalwork they commissioned. The titular inscriptions are larger and bolder, inlaid with wide areas of sheet silver so that their message cannot be missed' (Rachel Ward, Islamic Metalwork, London, 1993, p.113). The decoration of this candlestick presents a rare combination of the fully formed thuluth script and the figural roundels that were such a prominent feature of earlier vessels.
It is through the Mosul influence that the roundels with their mounted figures appear in Mamluk metalwork. Julian Raby discusses metalwork associated with Mosul and its influences (Julian Raby, “The Principle of Parsimony and the problem of the ‘Mosul School of Metalwork’”, in Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen (eds.), Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World, Art, Craft and Text, London, 2012, pp.11-85). The article shows clearly the link between the design of metalwork figural designs and contemporaneous manuscript illustration. That Mosul craftsmen worked for Ayyubid patrons is attested by many vessels, for example a basin in the Louvre made for the Ayyubid Sultan al-Adil, by Ahmad bin ‘Umar al-Dhaki (Sophie Makariou (ed.), Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2012, no.118, pp.175-7) and a ewer in the same museum made for Sultan Salah-al-Din Ayyub that is signed by Husayn bin Muhammad al-Mawsili (Makariou, op.cit., no.96, pp.146-7). The continuing direct influence of Mosul through into Mamluk period metalwork is demonstrated by a tray now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York commissioned at the beginning of the 14th century for Daud, the Rasulid Sultan of the Yemen, made by Ahmad bin Husayn al-Mawsili, working in Cairo (Esin Atil, Renaissance of Islam. Art of the Mamluks, exhibition catalogue, Washington DC, 1981, no.22, pp.80-1). That tray divides a bold Mamluk inscription with cusped roundels each containing a figure on horseback. In that case there are three – an archer, a lancer and a huntsman, each bearing very close resemblance to ours – the archer in particular. The depiction of our archer also relates closely to that on the famous Baptistère de Saint Louis in the Louvre, attributed to 1290-1310 (see D.S.Rice, The Baptistère de Saint Louis, London, 1953, pl.VII). The iconography in the other roundel on our candlestick, that with the swordsman (illustrated on the opening double page of the printed catalogue), is much harder to parallel. On the back of the horse is a secondary figure, likely a servant or assistant, perching behind the hunter and seemingly under attack from a passing bird.
According to L.A. Mayer, Asandamur (or al-Saifi Asandamur Silahdâr al-Mansouri al-Nasiri), was an emir in Damascus, imprisoned by Kitbugha in Muharram AH 696/November 1296 AD (Saracenic Heraldry, A Survey, Oxford, 1933, pp. 79-80). He became governor of Tripoli in AH 701 / 1301-02 / 701 AD, where he built a hammam. He was later appointed governor of Hama on 18 Dhul al-Hijja AH 709 / 19 May 1310 AD, and then of Aleppo from Jumada I AH 710/September 1310. He was arrested and executed in AH 1310 or 1311 / 710 or 711 AH. The fact that Asandamur was always stationed in Syria and the Levant suggests strongly that our candlestick was made there, rather than in Egypt - in this sense it is a useful piece in helping to establish differentials between Syrian and Egyptian Mamluk metalwork.
Asandamur’s blazon was a sword or scimitar (L.A. Mayer, op.cit., p.13). A basin bearing his name and with the same circular blazon with the sword, was in the Harari collection (no.120; detail published in Mayer, op. cit., pl. XXXVI, no. 3 or D.S. Rice, Studies in Islamic Metal Work, SOAS Bulletin, vol.14, no.3, 1952, pl.8b, pp. 564-578). The basin is also listed in Gaston Wiet, Catalogue of the Arab Museum, Metal Objects, Cairo, 1984 reprint, no.17, p. 66 and appendix 120. The cenotaph of Asandamur’s wife, also decorated with his blazon of a shield and sword, is in the museum of Damascus (Mayer, op. cit., p.80, and pl.XXXVII).
It is through the Mosul influence that the roundels with their mounted figures appear in Mamluk metalwork. Julian Raby discusses metalwork associated with Mosul and its influences (Julian Raby, “The Principle of Parsimony and the problem of the ‘Mosul School of Metalwork’”, in Venetia Porter and Mariam Rosser-Owen (eds.), Metalwork and Material Culture in the Islamic World, Art, Craft and Text, London, 2012, pp.11-85). The article shows clearly the link between the design of metalwork figural designs and contemporaneous manuscript illustration. That Mosul craftsmen worked for Ayyubid patrons is attested by many vessels, for example a basin in the Louvre made for the Ayyubid Sultan al-Adil, by Ahmad bin ‘Umar al-Dhaki (Sophie Makariou (ed.), Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2012, no.118, pp.175-7) and a ewer in the same museum made for Sultan Salah-al-Din Ayyub that is signed by Husayn bin Muhammad al-Mawsili (Makariou, op.cit., no.96, pp.146-7). The continuing direct influence of Mosul through into Mamluk period metalwork is demonstrated by a tray now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York commissioned at the beginning of the 14th century for Daud, the Rasulid Sultan of the Yemen, made by Ahmad bin Husayn al-Mawsili, working in Cairo (Esin Atil, Renaissance of Islam. Art of the Mamluks, exhibition catalogue, Washington DC, 1981, no.22, pp.80-1). That tray divides a bold Mamluk inscription with cusped roundels each containing a figure on horseback. In that case there are three – an archer, a lancer and a huntsman, each bearing very close resemblance to ours – the archer in particular. The depiction of our archer also relates closely to that on the famous Baptistère de Saint Louis in the Louvre, attributed to 1290-1310 (see D.S.Rice, The Baptistère de Saint Louis, London, 1953, pl.VII). The iconography in the other roundel on our candlestick, that with the swordsman (illustrated on the opening double page of the printed catalogue), is much harder to parallel. On the back of the horse is a secondary figure, likely a servant or assistant, perching behind the hunter and seemingly under attack from a passing bird.
According to L.A. Mayer, Asandamur (or al-Saifi Asandamur Silahdâr al-Mansouri al-Nasiri), was an emir in Damascus, imprisoned by Kitbugha in Muharram AH 696/November 1296 AD (Saracenic Heraldry, A Survey, Oxford, 1933, pp. 79-80). He became governor of Tripoli in AH 701 / 1301-02 / 701 AD, where he built a hammam. He was later appointed governor of Hama on 18 Dhul al-Hijja AH 709 / 19 May 1310 AD, and then of Aleppo from Jumada I AH 710/September 1310. He was arrested and executed in AH 1310 or 1311 / 710 or 711 AH. The fact that Asandamur was always stationed in Syria and the Levant suggests strongly that our candlestick was made there, rather than in Egypt - in this sense it is a useful piece in helping to establish differentials between Syrian and Egyptian Mamluk metalwork.
Asandamur’s blazon was a sword or scimitar (L.A. Mayer, op.cit., p.13). A basin bearing his name and with the same circular blazon with the sword, was in the Harari collection (no.120; detail published in Mayer, op. cit., pl. XXXVI, no. 3 or D.S. Rice, Studies in Islamic Metal Work, SOAS Bulletin, vol.14, no.3, 1952, pl.8b, pp. 564-578). The basin is also listed in Gaston Wiet, Catalogue of the Arab Museum, Metal Objects, Cairo, 1984 reprint, no.17, p. 66 and appendix 120. The cenotaph of Asandamur’s wife, also decorated with his blazon of a shield and sword, is in the museum of Damascus (Mayer, op. cit., p.80, and pl.XXXVII).