in the form of a lobed cartouche, finely pierced with inscription in thuluth on a ground of scrolling vines issuing flowerheads and split-palmettes, traces of gilding
34 x 25.2 cm.

Footnotes

Provenance
Private UK collection formed in the 1950s and thence by descent.

Inscriptions: Qur'an, sura CX, al-nasr, verse 3.

Elegant steel panels of this type were used to adorn important monuments of the Safavid period. A panel reputed to come from the tomb of Shah Tahmasp (reg. 1524-76) in Kashan was sold at Sotheby's (12 October 1982, lot 71) and a group of six panels, one dated AH 972/AD 1564-65, were exhibited at the Louvre in 2007 (see A. S. Melikian-Chirvani, Le Chant du monde: l'Art de L'Iran safavide 1501-1736, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2007, nos. 61-62).

Technically steel panels of this type required great skill to make. First a master scribe would have copied the inscription on paper and transferred it to the steel by means of a stencil or pounce. Steel being primarily used for weapons, it is likely that the maker was a swordsmith trained in the discipline of cutting and forging pattern-welded steel.

A cusped panel close in date to ours is in the British Museum, dated AH 1105/AD 1693-94, the year of the death of Shah Suleiman I (inv. OA 358, published in The Arts of Islam, exhibition catalogue, London 1976, no. 235, p. 200). Inscribed with verses from the Qur'an about King Solomon, it was probably made to adorn the wooden railing or grille on the Safavid ruler's cenotaph and it is likely that our plaque was intended for a similar purpose.

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- Islamic and Indian Art

A Safavid pierced gilt-steel Plaque Persia, dated AH 1109/AD 1697-98

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Matthew Thomas