134 - A chiseled and engraved bronze torch. The flared base is decorated with stylized palmettes arranged in a staggered pattern and two friezes of foliage framing an inscription in Nasta’liq script within multilobed cartouches separated by quatrefoils. The twelve-sided body is decorated with chevrons alternating between moldings and bands of foliage; the smooth upper section is engraved with a Nasta’liq inscription surrounded by friezes of floral foliage, and the rim is flared.

A chiseled and engraved bronze torch. The flared base is decorated with stylized palmettes arranged in a staggered pattern and two friezes of foliage framing an inscription in Nasta’liq script within multilobed cartouches separated by quatrefoils. The twelve-sided body is decorated with chevrons alternating between moldings and bands of foliage; the smooth upper section is engraved with a Nasta’liq inscription surrounded by friezes of floral foliage, and the rim is flared. Iran or Northwest India, late 16th or early 17th century H.: 33.2 cm (Damage and restorations) This type of torch, known in Persian as “Chamdân,” is frequently engraved with poetic inscriptions, with the owner’s name inscribed in cartouches at the base. The example presented here has a counterpart in the Louvre Museum (inv. OA 6037), which bears two couplets from an ode attributed to the Persian poet Mulla Hayrati Tuni, who died in 1553/54.