A fine brass basin of rounded form leading to an inverted rim, the body decorated with an engraved band of thuluth punctuated with large roundels encircling a horseman playing polo. The whole inlaid with silver and gold.

لمولان [ا]لسلطان / ا[لا]عظم مالك رقاب الامم / [ا]لسلطان سلاطين ا/لعرب و العجم العالم العا/دل المظفر المكرم المؤيد

“To our Lord, the mightiest Sultan, the possessor of the necks of nations, the sultan of the sultans of the Arabs and Persians, the learned, the just, the one made victorious [by God], the honored, the one supported [by God].”

Persia, probably Shiraz
Mid-14th Century
Height 10.5 cm; Diameter of mouth 17 cm; Diameter of body 22 cm

The region of Fars, in the south of Iran, was an important centre of metalwork production especially in the 14th and 15th Century. Ruled by the Injuid and later the Muzaffarids, it produced fine inlaid metalwork, characterised by bold inscriptions interspaced by scenes of courtly life. The row of foliations interspersed by palmettes which runs on the lower bottom is comparable to a bowl now in the British Museum1. The figure of the horseman playing polo is also found on a similar bowl now in the Victoria & Albert Museum2.

British Museum, London, inv.no.1901,0606.3; illustrated in Ward 1993, p.99, no.77.

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, inv.no.789-1901; published in Melikian-Chirvani 1982, pp.209-10, no.95