AN IMPORTANT SET OF ILKHANID REPOUSSÉ SILVER-GILT HORSE TRAPPINGS
CENTRAL ASIA OR PERSIA, 14th CENTURY
Estimate: £8,000 - £12,000
Auction: Islamic Art | Lots 1 to 66 | 12 June at 10am
Description
comprising 43 components mostly of rectangular shape with lobed edges, four of lobed tear-shape, four with one rounded end, and largest one with a central raised boss, each meticulously decorated in repoussé and incised decoration with a large dragon against foliage
Dimensions
largest 7.5cm (3in) long
Provenance
Acquired Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 24th April 2012, lot 81.
Private Collection, UK.
Footnote
Literature:
M. Baskhanov, Arts from the Land of Timur: An Exhibition from a Private Scottish Collection, Edinburgh, 2012, no. 416, p. 197 (illustrated).
Note:
These fittings would originally have been attached to the leather straps used for a horse’s bridle and harnesses, adding splendour to otherwise utilitarian equestrian gear. Such fine work would not necessarily have been practical under normal circumstances, and these may instead have been used in parades. Given the perishability of leather and cloth the belts themselves are rarely extant, although an earlier example from northern Afghanistan gives an idea of how these fittings might have been arranged [Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight: The Furusiyya Art Foundation Collection, Milan: 2008, p. 116]. Elaborately caparisoned horses can be seen in 14th century illustrations of the Shahnama and even on ceramics of the same period [see Julia Gonnella and Christoph Rauch, Heroische Zeiten: Tausend Jahre persisches Buch der Könige, Berlin: 2011, pp. 99, 174].
Given the luxurious materials used, and the quality of the decoration, it is certain that these trappings adorned the horse of a person of high rank within the Ilkhanid state. Although the Ilkhans had converted to Islam in the late 13th century, they continued to draw legitimacy from their Mongol origins and even as they became increasingly sedentary they retained many of the outer appearances of nomadism. Trappings such as these were part of this visual reference to the horse-powered hordes which founded their empire, as well as a testament to the role of horses in administering and protecting these territories. In the importance of horses and their accoutrements, the Mongols were also continuing Turkic and Persian traditions which stretched back to the pre-Islamic period [Emel Esin, “The Horse in Turkic Art” in Central Asiatic Journal Vol. 10., No. 3/4 (December 1965), pp. 172-3].