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A RARE OTTOMAN GILT-COPPER (TOMBAK) PILGRIM FLASK (MATARA)
1/7
Auctioneer has chosen not to publish the price of this lot
London
Description
A RARE OTTOMAN GILT-COPPER (TOMBAK) PILGRIM FLASK (MATARA)
TURKEY, 17th CENTURY
of slender pyramid form, made of two sheets of beaten gilded copper, one sheet wrapped like a robe and soldered at the collar with a circular narrow spout terminal, with a seam of rivets and a loop handle, the other sheet of metal soldered to the seams of the main sheet, the front engraved decoration divided into three wide bands containing large cusped medallions and palmettes filled with entwined split palmettes, continuous entwined split palmettes within the dividing bands
27cm (10 ¾in) high; 15.5cm (6 ¼in) max. width
Note:This is a rare and very fine example of an Ottoman matara or flask, a form drawn from the very humblest of materials but one which is associated with the power and piety of the Ottoman Empire at its peak. The present piece is formed from two sheets of metal, the larger folded around and joined at the back of the flask with a series of rivets. The material used is gilt-copper, referred to in Turkish as tombak; this term may be derived from the Malay tambaga (‘copper’), this metal being used in the alloy which forms the body. This surface would then be mercury-gilded, creating a luxurious effect often visually indistinguishable from pure gold (İ. Gündağ Kayaoğlu, Tombak, Istanbul: 1992, p. 2). The dating of the present piece is suggested through comparison with the palmettes on a parcel gilt silver incense burner in the Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi, which carries the date 1033 AH/1624-5 CE (Yanni Petsopoulos (ed.), Tulips, Arabesques & Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire, New York: 1982, p. 48 and fig. 53).The rivets on this piece point towards the prototype of this form, referencing the heavy stitching used on contemporary leather mataras, including one of near-identical form now in the Sadberk Hanım Museum [Hülya Bilgi, Reunited after Centuries: Works of Art Returned to Turkey by the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul: 2005, no. 48]. Another flask in the Metropolitan Museum of Art also displays its debt to leather through both its form and decoration. Metal examples such as these would have been used as emblems of rank among the elite (Stuart Carey Welch, The Islamic World Vol. 11, New York: 1987, p. 125]. In the Tarih-i Sultan Süleyman, completed in 1579-80, the matara is shown as part of the Sultan’s personal regalia alongside his sword [Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, p. 94). More than mere receptacles for water, mataras were an essential part of Ottoman imperial finery, and alongside the appliqué leather example sent as a diplomatic gift from Murad III to the Habsburg Rudolph II, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (C.28), there are examples in even more rarefied materials including gem-encrusted solid gold and rock crystal (Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, pp. 123-5, 128-30). A later leather matara in the Khalili Collection (MXD 366), of the same shape as the present example, appears to have been used to hold water from the holy well of Zamzam in Mecca. A matara such as the present example can be seen as the nexus of faith and rule under the Ottomans, stretching between the imperial capital in Istanbul as far as the holy city of Mecca in the distant Hijaz.
TURKEY, 17th CENTURY
of slender pyramid form, made of two sheets of beaten gilded copper, one sheet wrapped like a robe and soldered at the collar with a circular narrow spout terminal, with a seam of rivets and a loop handle, the other sheet of metal soldered to the seams of the main sheet, the front engraved decoration divided into three wide bands containing large cusped medallions and palmettes filled with entwined split palmettes, continuous entwined split palmettes within the dividing bands
27cm (10 ¾in) high; 15.5cm (6 ¼in) max. width
Note:This is a rare and very fine example of an Ottoman matara or flask, a form drawn from the very humblest of materials but one which is associated with the power and piety of the Ottoman Empire at its peak. The present piece is formed from two sheets of metal, the larger folded around and joined at the back of the flask with a series of rivets. The material used is gilt-copper, referred to in Turkish as tombak; this term may be derived from the Malay tambaga (‘copper’), this metal being used in the alloy which forms the body. This surface would then be mercury-gilded, creating a luxurious effect often visually indistinguishable from pure gold (İ. Gündağ Kayaoğlu, Tombak, Istanbul: 1992, p. 2). The dating of the present piece is suggested through comparison with the palmettes on a parcel gilt silver incense burner in the Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi, which carries the date 1033 AH/1624-5 CE (Yanni Petsopoulos (ed.), Tulips, Arabesques & Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire, New York: 1982, p. 48 and fig. 53).The rivets on this piece point towards the prototype of this form, referencing the heavy stitching used on contemporary leather mataras, including one of near-identical form now in the Sadberk Hanım Museum [Hülya Bilgi, Reunited after Centuries: Works of Art Returned to Turkey by the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul: 2005, no. 48]. Another flask in the Metropolitan Museum of Art also displays its debt to leather through both its form and decoration. Metal examples such as these would have been used as emblems of rank among the elite (Stuart Carey Welch, The Islamic World Vol. 11, New York: 1987, p. 125]. In the Tarih-i Sultan Süleyman, completed in 1579-80, the matara is shown as part of the Sultan’s personal regalia alongside his sword [Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, p. 94). More than mere receptacles for water, mataras were an essential part of Ottoman imperial finery, and alongside the appliqué leather example sent as a diplomatic gift from Murad III to the Habsburg Rudolph II, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (C.28), there are examples in even more rarefied materials including gem-encrusted solid gold and rock crystal (Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, pp. 123-5, 128-30). A later leather matara in the Khalili Collection (MXD 366), of the same shape as the present example, appears to have been used to hold water from the holy well of Zamzam in Mecca. A matara such as the present example can be seen as the nexus of faith and rule under the Ottomans, stretching between the imperial capital in Istanbul as far as the holy city of Mecca in the distant Hijaz.
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A RARE OTTOMAN GILT-COPPER (TOMBAK) PILGRIM FLASK (MATARA)
TURKEY, 17th CENTURY
of slender pyramid form, made of two sheets of beaten gilded copper, one sheet wrapped like a robe and soldered at the collar with a circular narrow spout terminal, with a seam of rivets and a loop handle, the other sheet of metal soldered to the seams of the main sheet, the front engraved decoration divided into three wide bands containing large cusped medallions and palmettes filled with entwined split palmettes, continuous entwined split palmettes within the dividing bands
27cm (10 ¾in) high; 15.5cm (6 ¼in) max. width
Note:This is a rare and very fine example of an Ottoman matara or flask, a form drawn from the very humblest of materials but one which is associated with the power and piety of the Ottoman Empire at its peak. The present piece is formed from two sheets of metal, the larger folded around and joined at the back of the flask with a series of rivets. The material used is gilt-copper, referred to in Turkish as tombak; this term may be derived from the Malay tambaga (‘copper’), this metal being used in the alloy which forms the body. This surface would then be mercury-gilded, creating a luxurious effect often visually indistinguishable from pure gold (İ. Gündağ Kayaoğlu, Tombak, Istanbul: 1992, p. 2). The dating of the present piece is suggested through comparison with the palmettes on a parcel gilt silver incense burner in the Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi, which carries the date 1033 AH/1624-5 CE (Yanni Petsopoulos (ed.), Tulips, Arabesques & Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire, New York: 1982, p. 48 and fig. 53).The rivets on this piece point towards the prototype of this form, referencing the heavy stitching used on contemporary leather mataras, including one of near-identical form now in the Sadberk Hanım Museum [Hülya Bilgi, Reunited after Centuries: Works of Art Returned to Turkey by the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul: 2005, no. 48]. Another flask in the Metropolitan Museum of Art also displays its debt to leather through both its form and decoration. Metal examples such as these would have been used as emblems of rank among the elite (Stuart Carey Welch, The Islamic World Vol. 11, New York: 1987, p. 125]. In the Tarih-i Sultan Süleyman, completed in 1579-80, the matara is shown as part of the Sultan’s personal regalia alongside his sword [Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, p. 94). More than mere receptacles for water, mataras were an essential part of Ottoman imperial finery, and alongside the appliqué leather example sent as a diplomatic gift from Murad III to the Habsburg Rudolph II, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (C.28), there are examples in even more rarefied materials including gem-encrusted solid gold and rock crystal (Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, pp. 123-5, 128-30). A later leather matara in the Khalili Collection (MXD 366), of the same shape as the present example, appears to have been used to hold water from the holy well of Zamzam in Mecca. A matara such as the present example can be seen as the nexus of faith and rule under the Ottomans, stretching between the imperial capital in Istanbul as far as the holy city of Mecca in the distant Hijaz.
TURKEY, 17th CENTURY
of slender pyramid form, made of two sheets of beaten gilded copper, one sheet wrapped like a robe and soldered at the collar with a circular narrow spout terminal, with a seam of rivets and a loop handle, the other sheet of metal soldered to the seams of the main sheet, the front engraved decoration divided into three wide bands containing large cusped medallions and palmettes filled with entwined split palmettes, continuous entwined split palmettes within the dividing bands
27cm (10 ¾in) high; 15.5cm (6 ¼in) max. width
Note:This is a rare and very fine example of an Ottoman matara or flask, a form drawn from the very humblest of materials but one which is associated with the power and piety of the Ottoman Empire at its peak. The present piece is formed from two sheets of metal, the larger folded around and joined at the back of the flask with a series of rivets. The material used is gilt-copper, referred to in Turkish as tombak; this term may be derived from the Malay tambaga (‘copper’), this metal being used in the alloy which forms the body. This surface would then be mercury-gilded, creating a luxurious effect often visually indistinguishable from pure gold (İ. Gündağ Kayaoğlu, Tombak, Istanbul: 1992, p. 2). The dating of the present piece is suggested through comparison with the palmettes on a parcel gilt silver incense burner in the Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi, which carries the date 1033 AH/1624-5 CE (Yanni Petsopoulos (ed.), Tulips, Arabesques & Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman Empire, New York: 1982, p. 48 and fig. 53).The rivets on this piece point towards the prototype of this form, referencing the heavy stitching used on contemporary leather mataras, including one of near-identical form now in the Sadberk Hanım Museum [Hülya Bilgi, Reunited after Centuries: Works of Art Returned to Turkey by the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul: 2005, no. 48]. Another flask in the Metropolitan Museum of Art also displays its debt to leather through both its form and decoration. Metal examples such as these would have been used as emblems of rank among the elite (Stuart Carey Welch, The Islamic World Vol. 11, New York: 1987, p. 125]. In the Tarih-i Sultan Süleyman, completed in 1579-80, the matara is shown as part of the Sultan’s personal regalia alongside his sword [Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, p. 94). More than mere receptacles for water, mataras were an essential part of Ottoman imperial finery, and alongside the appliqué leather example sent as a diplomatic gift from Murad III to the Habsburg Rudolph II, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (C.28), there are examples in even more rarefied materials including gem-encrusted solid gold and rock crystal (Esin Atıl, The Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, Washington, DC: 1987, pp. 123-5, 128-30). A later leather matara in the Khalili Collection (MXD 366), of the same shape as the present example, appears to have been used to hold water from the holy well of Zamzam in Mecca. A matara such as the present example can be seen as the nexus of faith and rule under the Ottomans, stretching between the imperial capital in Istanbul as far as the holy city of Mecca in the distant Hijaz.
Islamic & Indian Art
Sale Date(s)
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London
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COLLECTIONS & STORAGE OF PURCHASED LOTS
FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS & UK (OUTSIDE SCOTLAND) BUYERS
STORAGE: Items will be stored at 22 Connaught Street, until Wednesday 26th June at 5pm.
Thereafter we will store items at Stephen Morris Shipping Ltd., 15 Ockham Drive, Greenford Park, Greenford, UB6 0FD. Telephone +44(0)20 8832 2222. Items will be available to collect from 9am on Monday 1st July
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COST: Please note from Thursday 27th June you will be charged by our storage partners.
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FOR SCOTTISH BUYERS
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Thereafter items will be transported to our Edinburgh saleroom and will be available to collect by appointment.
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CALL 0131 557 8844
EMAIL info@lyonandturnbull.com
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The buyer shall pay the hammer price together with a premium, at the following rate, thereon.
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UK - Conditions Of Sale For Buyers
These Conditions of Sale and the Saleroom Notices as well as specific Catalogue terms, set out the terms on which we offer the Lots listed in this Catalogue for sale. By registering to bid and/or by bidding at auction You agree to these terms, we recommend that You read them carefully before doing so. You will find a list of definitions and a glossary at the end providing explanations for the meanings of the words and expressions used.
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Lyon & Turnbull Ltd. acts as agent for the Seller. On occasion where Lyon & Turnbull Ltd. own a lot in part or full the property will be identified in the catalogue with the symbol (
