BOL (TÂS) EN CUIVRE ROUGE AUX CARTOUCHES ÉPIGRAPHIÉS

EASTERN IRAN, TIMURID ART, late 15th CENTURY Bowl on a flat base, made of red tinned copper with engraved decoration. Inside, a four-lobed rosette within a roundel. On the outer walls, a continuous band of four cartouches inscribed in naskhi, alternating with roundels of crosses. Floral frieze on a cross-hatched background at the base, pewter almost entirely erased, wear. AN EPIGRAPHIC ENGRAVED COPPER BOWL (TÂS), EASTERN PERSIA, LATE 15TH CENTURY. H: 4.5 cm - Ø: 14 cm The inscription is based on two verses from the Shahnameh of Firdousi: jahanat ba-kam u falak yar bad / jahan afarinat nigahdar bad ba-kam-i tu bada sipihr-i buland / za chashm-i badanat mabada gazand (May the world conform to your desire and may the firmament be your friend / May the creator of the world be your protector / May the high firmament conform to your desire / May the evil eye of the wicked not harm you - translation: A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, le Bronze Iranien, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1973, p. 93) The same inscription is engraved on a Timurid plate dated 1496-97, and also on a wine bucket, both in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World. 8th-18th centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue, London, 1982, cat. 110, p. 252, and cat. 115, p. 257). These worms are frequently used from the 14th century on Timurid metals, and occasionally survive on tinned metals from the Shah Abbas period (op.cit., p. 257). Expert: L.S.