COLLECTIONS SLIDESHOW

• 

  CELESTIAL GLOBE

  SCI0021
  
  Celestial globe, engraved with a full set of constellation figures and the position of some 1024 stars, made by Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Tabari. The globe is cast in two halves, and the star positions marked in silver inlay. A 5-line signature, situated near the south pole of the instrument states, somewhat inaccurately, that it was based on the illustrations in the 10th century astronomer, al-Sufi’s Book of the Fixed Stars (Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabitah) adapted to take account of the 200-year lapse of time and rectifying errors of placement and spelling and that the maker had written the identifications of the various constellations of the Zodiac, fixed stars, lunar mansions, and of some non-Zodiacal constellations as well.

  Iran dated AH 684 (AD 1285-6), making this the sixth earliest surviving globe
  diameter: 13.4cm

• 

  TWO VASES

  JAP912
  
  Attributed to Kawade Shibataro

  Nagoya circa 1910
  height 34.5 cm

• 

  TIMEPIECE

  FR315
  
  Signed, by Maison Vever, workmaster's mark DC, the enamels monogrammed, by Claudius Popelin

  Paris circa 1889
  31.3 × 11.8 × 11.8 cm

• 

  CHAMFRON WITH CHEEK-PIECES

  MTW0995
  
  Chamfron (armour for a horse's face) and cheek-pieces. The steel chamfron is set decorated with silver-gilt appliqués and set with jade, carnelian, agate and coloured glass. These materials are characteristic of the decorative armour of parade horses and camels in the Ottoman period

  Ottoman Turkey or Egypt 18th century
  54.5 x 74 cm

• 

  VASE

  JAP526
  
  Signed Dai Nihon shippo kaisha Nagoya

  Exhibited: Tokyo 1877 circa 1877
  height 49.7 cm

• 

  VASE

  P013
  
  Porcelain painted in underglaze blue
  Signed Makuzu Kozan sei (made by Makuzu Kozan)

  Made by the Miyagawa Kozan Workshop About 1900-10
  Height 42.5 cm

• 

  HOOKAH BOWL

  ISL275
  
  Unsigned

  Iran, Qajar dynasty 19th century
  7.2 × 7.9 cm

• 

  JONAH AND THE WHALE

  MSS0727 fol 59a
  
  Jonah and the whale, from the Khalili portion of the Jami' al-Tawarikh ('Compendium of Chronicles' or - as it is sometimes known - 'The World History') of the Ilkhanid vizier Rashid al-Din. This is the earliest surviving Arabic copy of the celebrated text. It survives in two portions, one in the Khalili Collection, the other in the University Library, Edinburgh. The Khalili portion contains sections on the Prophet Muhammad and the early Caliphate; the Chinese emperors India; and the history of t

  Tabriz early 13th century AD
  45 x 43 x 47.5cm

• 

  MINIATURE OF A STILL LIFE

  FR860
  
  Signed, by Philippe Parpette

  Sèvres dated 1779
  15.8 × 13.7 cm

• 

  FLORAL CARPET

  TXT0191
  
  Safavid wool pile carpet with an all-over pattern of flowers and leaves

  perhaps Kirman 17th century AD
  591 x 244cm

• 

  VASE

  M58
  
  Silver, with shakudo and gold; the body and cover both embellished with cloisonné enamel worked in gold wire
  Marked Ozeki sei [made by Ozeki]

  Produced by the Ozeki Company About 1885
  Height 44 cm

• 

  FOLDING BACKGAMMON BOARD

  LAQ0284
  
  Lacquer-painted folding backgammon board, attributed to the court painter Muhammad Hasan. opaque watercolour and varnish on wood. The playing surface is made of three hinged wooden boards with lobed feet, which fold up and interlock to form a rectangular box when the board is closed. The principal decoration is on the cruciform area separating the four ‘tables’. Framed by elaborate borders, it consists of medallions of various shapes, four of them enclosing couples in European dress, one a couple in Iranian dress and one a woman nursing a child. At the centre is a rich bouquet of flowers. The only known dated portrait by Muhammad Hasan, who worked principally in oils, is a miniature of Fath‘ali Shah enthroned of 1234 AH (1818-19 AD).

  early 19th century
  69 x 45cm x 11.2 cm (open)

• 

  EVENING BAG

  IT737
  
  Engraved signature, by Aloisia Rucellai

  Florence circa 1968
  13.9 × 19 × 5.1 cm

• 

  CHARGER

  GER883
  
  Unmarked

  circa 1870
  diameter 55.3 cm, height 7.6 cm

• 

  CASKET

  GER440
  
  Unmarked, by Reinhold Vasters

  Aachen 1870-90
  49.4 × 39.3 × 39.3 cm

• 

  COMBINED TIMEPIECE AND PHOTOGRAPH FRAME

  FAB859
  
  Maker's mark Carl Fabergé, workmaster's mark Mikhail Perkhin, assaymaster Yakov Lyapunov, 88 zolotniks

  St Petersburg 1899-1903
  12.5 × 24 cm

• 

  FRAME

  FAB747
  
  Maker's mark Carl Fabergé, workmaster's mark Mikhail Perkhin, assaymaster Yakov Lyapunov, 56 zolotniks

  St Petersburg 1899-1903
  7.8 × 10.3 cm

• 

  SURTOUT de TABLE

  FR432
  
  Granite, gilt and patinated bronze, champlevé and plique à jour enamel, moulded glass, ceramic and ivory centrepiece Stamped Lalique, engraved Cardeilhac

  Paris circa 1903
  24.5 × 82 × 62 cm; lights 38 × 44 × 42 cm

• 

  PORTRAIT MINIATURE OF THE QAJAR RULER, FATH'ALI SHAH

  JLY1231
  
  Enamelled gold miniature portrait of the Qajar ruler Fath 'Ali Shah, signed by the royal painter Baqir, who worked in enamels as well as lacquer. Compared to life-sized portraits of him, this miniature depicts Fath‘ali Shah as markedly fuller-faced and with a much shorter beard, but his continuous eyebrows - in Qajar art, a mark of male, as well as female, beauty - are immediately recognisable. Instead of the Kayanid crown he invented, he wears a tall astrakhan hat decorated with an aigrette in the form of an early 17th-century Mughal turban pin, doubtless booty from the Mughal treasury in Delhi.

  Iran Early 19th century AD
  6.2 x 4.4cm

• 

  CALLIGRAPHIC WORKS

  CAL0154
  
  Calligraphic composition in gold on a tobacco leaf, with the basmalah ('In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful') written in thulth script.

  Undated
  14.3 x 11.5cm

• 

  PART 29 OF A 30-PART QUR'AN

  QUR0974 fol 1 det
  
  Illuminated frontispiece with ornamental script, from a 30-part Qur'an. This is an early specimen of a type of Qur’anic manuscript with its roots in eastern Iran, produced by the Huihui, or Chinese Muslims, under the Ming and Qing dynasties.

  Khanbaliq (Beijing) dated 1401
  24.5 x 17.5cm

• 

  PAIR OF COVERED BOWLS WITH STANDS

  CH521
  
  Unsigned

  China, Qing dynasty circa 1730-40
  covered bowl height 13 cm; stand diameter 14.3 cm

• 

  THRONE TABLE

  CH648
  
  Six-character seal mark Da Qing Qianlong nianzhi [Made in the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty]

  Guangzhou (Canton) 1736-95
  37 × 90.5 × 42 cm

• 

  INCENSE BURNER OR POMANDER IN THE FORM OF A LYNX

  MTW1525
  
  This lynx seems to be pawing the ground, as if about to jump up and catch its prey on the wing, as is the habit of lynxes. The lines at the eyes indicate that the animal is smiling. The impracticality of using the tail as a handle and the inconvenience of replenishing the incense when it was full of hot coals make it more probable that this vessel was a pomander, filled with a paste of ambergris and spices to scent the air, and only requiring occasional refilling.

  Iran late 12th - early 13th century
  27 x 27 x 8.7 cm

• 

  SECTION FROM A CHASUBLE

  TXT0129
  
  silk lampas with silver thread on a silk foundation. A chasuble is a long sleeveless outer vestment worn by a priest when celebrating Mass. The lattice pattern is formed by pairs of split palmettes with cloud tendrils, which neatly engage the spear-like points of the medallions that fill the interstices. The medallions are edged with blue florets and filled with slender blossoms.

  Bursa 16th century AD
  135 x 66cm

• 

  NOVELTY SCENT SPRAY

  SW054
  
  Unmarked, attributed to Mouliné, Bautte & Co. or Moulinié & Bautte

  Geneva circa 1805
  11 × 5.5 × 1.4 cm

• 

  LARGE KOVSH

  RUS024
  
  Maker's mark Carl Fabergé (with Imperial warrant) over-stamping workmaster's mark Feodor Rückert 91 zolotniks; inventory number 22714

  Moscow 1899-1908
  29.8 × 38.3 × 24 cm

• 

  TEXTILE WITH PALMETTES IN LOTUS MEDALLIONS

  TXT0229
  
  Ilkhanid silk brocade with palmette trellis design. tabby, with supplementary weft, gold thread on strips of leather or parchment, originally on a coral-red ground.

  Mamluk Egypt or Ilkhanid Iran 13th century AD
  42.5 x 43cm

• 

  WINE CISTERN

  GER498
  
  P. Bruckmann & Söhne

  Heilbronn circa 1896
  107.5 × 73.5 × 78 cm

• 

  SNUFF BOX

  SW646
  
  Maker's mark Bautte & Moynier, engraved Bautte & Moynier a Geneve [sic]

  Geneva 1821-26
  2.6 × 6.3 × 4.9 cm

• 

  QUR'AN

  QUR0950 det
  
  Detail of an illuminated page from part 7 of a 30-part Mamluk Qur'an

  probably Cairo 14th century
  16 x 16cm (detail shown)

• 

  CORSAGE ORNAMENT

  FR919
  
  Engraved Lalique

  Paris circa 1903-05
  4.5 × 21 cm

• 

  CHARGER

  AUS326
  
  Maker's mark Hermann Ratzersdorfer

  Vienna after 1886
  diameter 50 cm

• 

  CALLIGRAPHIC WORKS

  CAL0165
  
  Calligraphic composition in red on a horse chestnut leaf, with a Qur'anic verse in thulth script. The text, part of verse 64 from surah Yusuf (xii), reads: 'But God is the best to take care [of him], and He is the Most Merciful of those who show mercy!

  Ottoman Turkey 19th century
  length 24.5cm

• 

  TIMEPIECE

  FAB111
  
  Maker’s mark Carl Fabergé, workmaster’s mark Hjalmar Armfelt assaymaster Jakov Lyapunov, 88 zolotniks; inventory number 12737

  St Petersburg 1904
  20 × 14.2 × 14.3 cm

• 

  PAIR OF EARRINGS WITH PENDANT CHAINS

  JLY1725
  
  Pair of Fatimid granulated gold filigree crescent earrings (shown front and back).

  Egypat or Syria 10th or11th century AD
  4.1 x 3.1cm (each)

• 

  MOSQUE LAMP

  GLS0572
  
  Mosque lamp with gilded and enamelled decoration, including blazons of the Mamluk Sultan Barquq and a Qur'anic verse (the opening part of ayat al-nur, or 'Verse of Light'). the Lamp enclosed in Glass’. This is broken by three roundels with the heraldic blazon of Sultan Barquq, the Circassian usurper of the Bahri Mamluk dynasty in 784 AH (1382 AD), in the form of an inscription. The body bears a slightly more elaborate version of the same inscription in bold script.

  Egypt 15th century AD
  height: 33cm; max diameter: 25cm

• 

  VANITY CASE

  AM681
  
  Engraved Cartier NY, numbered (?) 649

  New York circa 1920
  7.5 × 5.3 × 1.3 cm; suspension band 9.5 cm

• 

  KHIZR AND ELIAS DISCOVERING THE WATER OF LIFE, WATCHED BY ALEXANDER

  MSS0979 fol 9b
  
  A Selection of paintings from the Khalili Falnamah ('Book of Divination'); Khizr and Ilias discovering the water of life, watched by Alexander ('The Great')

  Deccan (Golconda) circa 1610 - 30
  folios: 41 x 28.4cm; paintings: 30.3 x 21cm

• 

  VASE

  FR482
  
  Unsigned, by Camille Fauré; retailer's label 'A. Guerre - Dijon'

  Limoges circa 1930
  height 30.3 cm

• 

  BOWL WITH INSCRIPTION

  POT0850
  
  Earthenware bowl with slip-painted decoration including an inscription in foliated Kufic script, 'Generosity is the disposition of the dwellers of Paradise.'

  Eastern Iran, Nishapur 10th century
  diameter: 25.6cm

• 

  A GIRL WITH AN INDIAN HEADDRESS

  MSS1000.2
  
  Young woman with Indian headdress, signed by the painter Mu'in Musavvir, from a copy of Firdawsi's Shahnamah.

  Isfahan dated 1648
  20.5 x 10cm (within gold rules)

• 

  DISH

  POT1649
  
  Safavid dish, painted in cobalt blue and black under a transparent glaze. The Buddhist lion in reserve on a ground of dense foliage and cloud scrolls is characteristic of the Chinese Kraakporselein exported for the European market. The cavetto bears a Persian quatrain incised in black slip advising the owner to be content with the worldly goods he has.

  Iran late 17th century AD
  6.5 x 33 cm (diameter)

• 

  TURBAN CROWN

  JLY1071
  
  diamonds, natural pearls, foiled rubies (genuine and synthetic) and emeralds, green glass; gold, enamelled gold and silver mounts, gold thread and silver strips; core of wood or papier-mâché covered with maroon velvet The combination of turban and crown symbolised the bond between religious and secular leadership in the Muslim world, especially on the Indian sub-continent, where the Mughal emperors and their princely vassals boasted of a long tradition of jewelled turbans. The present crown is similar to that worn by Sir Jang Bahadur, prime minister and commander-in-chief of Nepal from 1856 to 1877, and to others subsequently worn by the ruling family of the kingdom.

  Kathmandu 19th century AD
  18 x 23 x 24cm

• 

  CASKET

  GER189
  
  Engraved Paul Telge, enamels signed with initials, by Ernst Bastanier

  Berlin dated 1897
  10 × 36.2 × 29 cm

• 

  PAIR OF VASES

  FR650
  
  Signed, by Ferdinand Barbedienne

  Paris circa 1872
  height 140 cm

• 

  SPOON

  MXD0253
  
  Jade spoon, carved in the shape of a rolled lotus leaf. The superb design and delicacy of the carving illustrate the virtuosity of the master lapidaries of the Shah Jahan period (r1628-57). The bowl and stem are carved from a single jade block, and the finial from a separate piece. The perceptible bend in the handle is in fact a skilful means of reinforcing what would otherwise have been an extremely fragile object.

  Mughal India Mid 17th century AD
  14.8 cm (length)

• 

  TWO WANDERING DERVISHES

  MSS0619
  
  Two wandering dervishes. Probably the most striking feature of this large-format study, a version of a Chinese genre painting of the Yuan period showing Buddhist holy men (lohans), is the gold jewellery worn by the two figures, including earrings, a torque, belts, anklets and even an archer’s thumb-ring. It contrasts strikingly with their homely apparel and footwear, which, like their shaven heads and branded ritual markings, suggest spiritual poverty and identify them as wandering dervishes (qalandars).

  most probably Tabriz later 15th century AD
  48.6 x 37.5cm

• 

  EMERALD CIRCULAR BOX

  JLY1857
  
  This spectacular box is made of no fewer than 103 emeralds set in the 16 slightly convex rectangular panels of the walls and the 16 curving triangular panels that make up the lid. An identical cypress is carved on each panel. The apex bears a diamond with 24 visible facets. The underside of the box is engraved with a many-petalled lotus in translucent emerald-green enamel. Similar boxes made of various precious materials appear in Indian miniatures from the early 17th century on. They could have been for medicines (including opium, a Mughal panacea) or to hold even more precious objects, such as uncut diamonds. PMC

  Mughal India circa 1635
  4 x 5cm

• 

  COINS - MUGHAL

  AST0009
  
  Sagitarius; gold muhur, from Jahangir's zodiac series

  Agra ah 1032; regnal year 17