Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Islamic Middle East, Room 42, The Jameel Gallery

Candlestick

ca. 1250 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This candlestick comes from an area in south-east Turkey with a strong tradition of casting in bronze. When inlaid decoration was introduced from Iran, local metalworkers applied it to objects that had been cast rather than formed from sheet brass. Here the inlay has been used to create medallions with scenes of hunting and revelry interspersed with key-patterns, figures of animals and birds and plant ornament.

For larger motifs metalworkers chiselled out small areas of the surface and filled them with thin sheets of silver, gold and copper. They added details by chasing the surface of the softer metals. They created contrast with a black filler. The results were, for metalwork, an unusually graphic form of decoration, often of great quality.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Bronze, cast and turned on a lathe, engraved and inlaid with black composition
Brief description
Bronze candlestick with inlaid decoration, south-east Turkey (probably Siirt), ca. 1250.
Physical description
Leaded bronze candlestick, cast and turned; engraved and (partly) inlaid with decoration including medallions with scenes of hunting and revelry, interspersed with key-patterns, animal- and bird-figures, and vegetal ornament.
Dimensions
  • Height: 19.9cm
  • Diameter: 19.6cm
Gallery label
Jameel Gallery Bronze Candlestick South-east Turkey, probably Siirt About 1250 This candlestick comes from an area with a strong tradition of casting in bronze. When inlaid decoration was introduced from Iran, it was applied to objects that had been cast rather than formed from sheet brass, as in the case of the 12-sided candlestick. Bronze inlaid with silver, gold and a black composition Museum no. M.711-1910. Bequest of George Salting(Jameel Gallery)
Object history
Salting bequest, 23 December 1909.
Production
One of a group of candlesticks attributed to the Sultanate of Rum, which had its capital at Konya (Turkey) and dependencies in Armenia.
Subjects depicted
Summary
This candlestick comes from an area in south-east Turkey with a strong tradition of casting in bronze. When inlaid decoration was introduced from Iran, local metalworkers applied it to objects that had been cast rather than formed from sheet brass. Here the inlay has been used to create medallions with scenes of hunting and revelry interspersed with key-patterns, figures of animals and birds and plant ornament.

For larger motifs metalworkers chiselled out small areas of the surface and filled them with thin sheets of silver, gold and copper. They added details by chasing the surface of the softer metals. They created contrast with a black filler. The results were, for metalwork, an unusually graphic form of decoration, often of great quality.
Bibliographic references
  • Curatola, Giovanni, 'Draghi', Eurasiatica, n.15 Venice: Universita' degli Studi di Venezia, 1989. pp 168, ill. Fig. 52, text p58
  • A. S. Melikian-Chirvani, Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World 8th-18th Centuries, London, 1982, pp. 358-60, cat. no. 168.
  • Chirvani, M. in Islamic Metalwork for the Iranian World, 8th-18th century, 1982, No. 87
Collection
Accession number
M.711-1910

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Record createdOctober 24, 2003
Record URL
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