It's Islamic Sales Week again! And as always there are lovely artefacts waiting to be discovered and snapped up.
It is surprising to see an institute such as the LA Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem open its doors, even a chink, to deaccession a few of its treasures. With Covid about, others will no doubt follow. At the same time, one cannot help feel a twinge of regret when heirlooms disappear into the vaults of yet another bloated 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's Bellini portrait of Mehmed the Conqueror, that they would happily allow it to head for the Bosphorus if they could. Well done the Mayor of Istanbul for snapping up the double Bellini portrait at Christie's in June before it, too, vanished. It went on show in Istanbul this month.
Today, Tuesday, October 27, sees a double billing at Sotheby's, with the sale of Select Works from the LA Mayer Museum of Islamic Art occupying the morning session.
Among the highlights are a magnificent Akkoyunlu turban helmet (Lot 55, above and main picture, top). Made for the powerful semi-nomadic Turkomen confederation that rose to power in the 14th century. 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 the museum in Jerusalem is this large, dazzling 17th-century Ottoman silk 'kemha' panel (Lot 108, est £30,000–50,000).
The onlty Iznik in the collection is Lot 75 (est £180.000–220,000), a hanging ornament in the cobalt blue and white glaze of highly prized early-Iznik, c1480.
Guaranteed to appeal to Turkish collectors is Lot 155, an elegantly restrained 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, in which a magnificent flock of birds cover a white-ground 1575 Ushak carpet. 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 by chance 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.
Tiny but no less apppealing, this gorgeous aquamarine chess piece (Lot 440, est £7,000) measures 4.5cm high and presumably represents a Knight. Thought to date as early as the 9th century, it could well have graced a chessboard in Abbasid Baghdad, where the game's popularity was immense. Where it was carved is unknown: Iraq, Iran or Eypt are all apparently possible.
At Bonhams today, bibliophile Central Asia buffs were drawn to this copy of the first, 1835, French edition of Alexander Burns' legendary account of his journey to Bukhara (Lot 254). It fetched a rewarding £15,000.
Wiith hoime-barbering so much in vogue thanks to Covid, it is not surprising that this magnificent 18th-century Ottoman barber's apron (Lot 133) should fetch a decent £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 in fact originally a Turkic dynasty. For sheer charm, nothing at Christie's 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 minutest detail a banquet given by Nasir Al-Din Shah at the Gulestan Palace Gardens in Tehran some time between 1870 and 1880. One assumes from the deep bows, that it is the Shah on the left inspecting the magnificently laid tables. The whole hall, with its fully grown trees, glows in the candlelight. The dynasty's love of paintings is illustrated by pictures hanging high on the walls. This link allows you to zoom in.
More to follow tomorrow on this sale…