This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Covered Box with Design of Figural, Vegetal, and Geometric Motifs

Location:

Saint Louis, United States of America

Holding Museum:

Saint Louis Art Museum

About Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis

Date of Object:

Hegira First half 8th century / AD first half 14th century

Museum Inventory Number:

39:1926a,b

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Copper alloy with silver and gold inlay

Dimensions:

Length: 26.7cm x Width: 27.3cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ilkhanid

Provenance:

Iran, Asia

Description:

A twelve-sided brass box with silver and gold inlay has a cover with a central hemispherical dome on the top. The cover is relief decorated with interlocking geometric and vegetal patterning, separated by plain bands of meander. The main register of the dome has circles containing kneeling figures. The dome is surrounded by a stepped, scalloped area, surrounded again by a broader scalloped step, points of the scallops corresponding in location. This broader step has the same incised decoration. The cover tapers in slightly around a plain bottom lip and joins to the box at a thin band of stylized guilloche.
The box has the same type of background relief decoration, registers separated by bands of meander. The roundels contain seated, cross-legged figures. The box rests on a convex bottom.
There is some wear and abrasion over the entire surface of the box. The very top of the dome has a notable hole; some of the metal has been folded back over the top [this was the point of attachment for a handle and a ring that appears in older photographs of the object, but has since been removed]. Also, one area on the side of the cover seems to have a small metal "plug" type of repair.

How date and origin were established:

Scholarly review and/or comparison to similar objects from the period.

How Object was obtained:

Museum Purchase, 1926

How provenance was established:

Scholarly review and/or comparison to similar objects from the period.

Citation of this web page:

 "Covered Box with Design of Figural, Vegetal, and Geometric Motifs" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;us;Mus24;39;en

MWNF Working Number: US4 39