Precious Ottoman inkwell - Lot 213

Precious Ottoman inkwell Partly watermarked silver, turquoise Turkey, 16th century, Ottoman Empire H. 5.5 cm - D. 5.2 cm Provenance : - Henri-René d'Allemagne Collection, Nicolas Landau, then Gérard Wahl-Boyer This rare Ottoman silver inkwell, with its finely elaborate decoration, bears witness to the great refinement of objects produced at the Ottoman court in the 16th century. The body features a register of silver filigree and granulation, with large trefoils alternating with flowers centered on turquoise. The base is engraved with a fine frieze of foliage, which is repeated on the edge of the lid. The flat lid is deeply engraved with a beautiful design of interlaced palmettes. It is topped by a removable filigree dome-shaped grip, to which a small chain is attached to the body of the object. The delicate rumi arabesque motif (composed of interlaced palmettes) engraved on the lid is comparable to that found on metalwork and ceramics attributed to the Ottoman court and dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. See, for example, the palmettes engraved on a dish, or those painted on an Iznik ceramic gourd, in: Petsopoulos Y. (ed.), 1982, L'art décoratif ottoman : Tulipes, arabesques et turbans, London and Paris: Alexandria Press / Denoël, p. 21 and p. 72.