Today, Islamic Sales Week in London kicked off with the Islamic and Indian Art sale at Bonhams this morning (e-catalogue).
One cannot help feel a twinge of regret when heirlooms disappear into the vaults of yet another unappreciative national museum. The laws of Turkey and Great Britian make it impossible for museums to release collections onto the art market. One suspects, after reading Elizabeth Rodini's fascinating book about the National Gallery in London's Bellini of Mehmed the Conqueror, they would happily have allowed it to fly off to the Bosphorus (for a small consideration). And well done the Mayor of Istanbul for snapping up the double Bellini portrait at Christie's in June. So it is exciting to see a musem prise open its doors, even a chink. With Covid about, others will follow
Tuesday, October 27, sees a double billing at Sotheby's. Before the usual sale starts in the afternoon we are being offered Select Works from the LA Mayer Museum of Islamic Art in Jerusalem.
Among the highlights are this splendid Akkoyunlu turban helmet (Lot 55), above and main picture, top. This was nade fir powerful semi-nomadic Turkomen confederation that rose to power in the 14th century and was soon marrying Byzantine princesses. It is expected to fetch £400,000–600-000. The no-nonsense silver-inlaid inscription concludes: 'The world lasts but an hour so live your life in obedience'.
Another glorious artefact from Jerusalem is this dazzling 17th-century Ottoman silk 'kemha' panel (Lot 108, est £30,000–50,000).
The onlty Iznik in the collection offered is Lot 75 (est £180.000–220,000), a hanging ornament dated by its cobalt blue and white glaze to the highly prized early=Iznik period c1480.
A must surely for any Turkish collector is Lot 155, a supremely restrained and elegant 18th-century Kütahya bowl, just 6.6cm high (est. £3,000–5,000).
After lunch Sotheby's treats us to Arts of the Islamic World & India, including Fine Rugs and Carpets. Top billing goes to Lot 453, a magnificent flock of birds on a white-ground 1575 Ushak carpet. Known by the names of the collections it previously belonged to, the Zarander-Cassirer 'Bird' carpet is a very rare thing indeed and expected to fetch between £500,000 and £800,000. The attribution of this very small group of carpets to the town of Selendi (home today of a notable red wine), not far from Uşak in western Anatolia, derives from a 17th-century register discovered in Edirne (and originally quoted an article by Robert Pinner and Walter B Denny). This refers to a carpet with 'Selendi's crow drawings on a white ground'. The dating, circa 1575, is based on datable Western paintings. The earliest known of several 16th- and 17th-century published depictions of a 'bird carpet' iis a portrait by Hans Mielich (now lost), published in 1973.
Diminutive but no less impressive is this gorgeous aquamarine chess piece (Lot 440, est £7,000). It measures 4.5cm high and presumably represents a Knight. Thought to date from the 9th century, it would perhaps have graced a chessboard in Abbasid Baghdad, where the game's popularity was immense. Where it was carved is not known: Iraq, Iran or Eypt?
Bonhams today was a more modest affair for Turkish collectors, but for tCentral Asia buffs, one draw was this copy of the first French edition, published in 1835, of Alexander Burns' account of his journey to Bukhara (Lot 254). It fetched £15,000.
For those who prefer to have their hair cut at home, there was this classic 18th-century Ottoman barber's apron (Lot 133), which fetched £3800.
On Wednesday, October 28, it is the turn of Christie’s with their Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Oriental Rugs and Carpets.
The Qajars who ruled Persia from 1794 were originally another Turkic dynasty. For sheer charm at Christie's this week, nothing can beat this begiuiling painting of a Qajar royal banquet. Lot 50 (est £100,000–200,000) , it is attributed to Yahya Ghaffari (also known as Sani al-Mulk II) and shows in the minutest detail a banquet given by Nasir Al-Din Shah at the Gulestan Palace Gardens in Tehran c1870–80. The Shah is the figure seen on the left inspecting the magnificently laid tablesl. The whole hall with its fully grown trees glows in the candlelight. The dynasty's love of paintings is illustrated by canvases hanging on the walls. This link allows you to zoom in.