A RARE OTTOMAN SHAFFRON WITH ENGRAVED DECORATION, EARLY 16TH CENTURY, TURKISH OR IRANIAN

A RARE OTTOMAN SHAFFRON WITH ENGRAVED DECORATION, EARLY 16TH CENTURY, TURKISH OR IRANIAN

formed of a single plate extending from the horse's brow to its nose and narrowing slightly to the latter, its upper corners and sides cut with semi-circular apertures for the ears and eyes respectively, in each case flanged outward at their edges, the apertures for the ears each bordered by a pair of flutes, repeated around the upper ends of those for the eyes and converging at their lower ends to descend medially to just above the level of the nose; the edges of the plate pierced throughout with widely-spaced holes for the attachment of a lining or mail, the area between the eyes incised with the Tanĝa or ownership-mark of the Ottoman arsenal in the Church of St Irene, Istanbul, the centre of the brow engraved with an elaborate lozenge-shaped cartouche enclosing the inscription "The Sultan" in thuluth between scrolling foliage, and the area beneath the mark, at each cheek and at the tip of the nose engraved with similar foliage in smaller cartouches of the same form; the whole showing moderate pitting and wear overall, with some patches of delamination of the metal, and a loss to the left edge just above the level of the eye

Provenance

The Ottoman Arsenal, Istanbul

A very similar shaffron, formerly in the collections of Sir Guy Francis Laking and George Cameron Stone, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Acc. No. 36.25.510 (See Alexander 2015, pp. 128-9). Others are in the Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Vaduz (See Mohamed 2007, nos 326-7, pp. 340-1); and the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, (See Alexander 1992, nos 41 & 44-5, pp. 88-9 & 93-4)