A pair of Mamluk ivory inlaid wooden Doors Egypt, 15th Century and later(2)
Sold for £28,800 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Private & Iconic Collections and House Sales specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistA pair of Mamluk ivory inlaid wooden Doors
Egypt, 15th Century and later
Egypt, 15th Century and later
each 115.7 x 37.8 cm.(2)
Footnotes
These doors would most likely have made up the front entrance to the minbar - the structured wood pulpit from which sermons are given during the Friday midday prayers. Its origins date back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad addressing the Muslim community in Medina.
During the Mamluk era, all the panelling covering the minbar, including the doors, were exquisitely decorated with geometric and lattice motifs, inlaid with small ebony wood fragments and ivory, forming large mosaic panels often with octagonal motifs. This was especially commmon throughout Spain and North Africa.
For pairs of doors with similar decoration in the Louvre Museum, see, Elise Anglade, Catalogue des boiseries de la section islamique, Paris, 1998, nos. 49-52 and for a Mamluk panel with stylistic similarities in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, see, Esin Atil, Art of the Mamluks, Washington, D.C., 1981, no. 99, pp. 201 - 202.