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Imposing incense burner with a cylindrical body
standing on three feet, the base flat and pierced
in a concentric pattern. The surface of the main
body in openwork with a register of tri-lobed
arches divided by triple columns. The domed lid
featuring a similar pattern of lobed arches with
the addition of a descending palmette from the
top. The dome topped by a spherical knob with
several perforations and a capped finial. The
handle of square section pierced throughout and
terminating with an animal head finial.
This type of incense burner was already known
in the Coptic and early Islamic periods, and it
featured a standing form with a shallow
cylindrical body, a domed lid, a long horizontal
handle and three feet. Indeed six examples are
known which belong to various international
institutions including the Louvre, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the
Coptic Museum in Cairo and the Fouquet
collection in Berlin, presumably all dating
between the 8th and the 10th c. AD. Their shape
must have been inspired by a Sasanian
prototype, as the presence of triple arches with
columns, the knobbed domed lid and the animal
finial on the handle seem to imply.
Yet this typology was not only favoured both in
Egypt and in the eastern provinces during the
Ummayad dynasty, but also later revived in the
Ayubbid and Seljuq periods. The sobre
decoration of our example would seem to point
to an earlier date, perhaps 10th - 11th century
AD.
For an in-depth discussion of this type of
incense
burner and related examples from known
collections, see: J.W.Allan, Metalwork of the
Islamic World, Sotheby's, 1985: pp.25-34.
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