Torch Stand
1580-1590 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Lamp stands with a fitted lamp at the top first appeared in Iran in the period 1500-1600. They are often inscribed with verses that refer to their function. One line on the base of this example reads, 'Like a moth, my main concern is with the candle, since, if I move towards it, it burns my wings’.
Around 1550 a new type of brassware with fine, engraved decoration emerged in Iran. It featured stylised plants and other ornament shown, as here, in relief against a hatched ground, originally filled with a black compound. The decoration was often arranged in bands or cartouches that matched the shape of the object. Poetic inscriptions in the elegant ‘nasta’liq’ style of Persian calligraphy were also common. Human and animal motifs, absent since before 1400, reappeared.
Around 1550 a new type of brassware with fine, engraved decoration emerged in Iran. It featured stylised plants and other ornament shown, as here, in relief against a hatched ground, originally filled with a black compound. The decoration was often arranged in bands or cartouches that matched the shape of the object. Poetic inscriptions in the elegant ‘nasta’liq’ style of Persian calligraphy were also common. Human and animal motifs, absent since before 1400, reappeared.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Brass, cast and engraved with champlevé decoration |
| Brief description | Brass lampstand with verses, Iran, 1580-1600. |
| Physical description | Brass, cast and engraved with champlevé decoration, inscribed with love verses in Persian containing figurative references to candles and burning. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Gallery label |
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| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Lamp stands with a fitted lamp at the top first appeared in Iran in the period 1500-1600. They are often inscribed with verses that refer to their function. One line on the base of this example reads, 'Like a moth, my main concern is with the candle, since, if I move towards it, it burns my wings’. Around 1550 a new type of brassware with fine, engraved decoration emerged in Iran. It featured stylised plants and other ornament shown, as here, in relief against a hatched ground, originally filled with a black compound. The decoration was often arranged in bands or cartouches that matched the shape of the object. Poetic inscriptions in the elegant ‘nasta’liq’ style of Persian calligraphy were also common. Human and animal motifs, absent since before 1400, reappeared. |
| Bibliographic reference | A. S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8-18th Centuries, London, 1982, p. 315, cat. no. 141. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1526-1903 |
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| Record created | March 18, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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