Name of Object:

Bookbinding

Location:

London, England, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

Victoria and Albert Museum

 About Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Date of Object:

Probably late hegira 9th / 15th century

Museum Inventory Number:

531–1983

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Gilded and painted leather over paper.

Dimensions:

Height 31.2 cm, width 21 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Mamluk

Provenance:

Cairo or Damascus.

Description:

A tooled leather bookbinding with ornament added in gold. The front and back covers feature a design composed around a central circular medallion. Within it, an arabesque pattern grows out of a geometric interlace to fill the circular space; on the other side of a wide border decorated with linked flowers, 12 scallops form a sunburst motif. Large spade-like motifs project from the top and bottom scallops. The corners of the front and back covers are filled with related arabesque designs, as is the binding's flap, itself further ornamented with a dense field of freely rendered flowers. The gilded tooling is further highlighted in some areas by the addition of light-blue pigment, creating a subtle and pleasing contrast. This binding was thought for many years to be a work of early Ottoman times but recently it has been re-attributed to the late Mamluk period. It is unknown which book this binding was used to protect, but given the quality of the workmanship it seems likely that it was a Qur'an.

View Short Description

A tooled leather bookbinding with ornament in gold and light-blue pigment. Details of the design are similar to other bookbindings from the late Mamluk period. Such a fine binding was most likely used to cover a Qur’an.

How date and origin were established:

Details of the decoration are similar to those on bindings known to have been made for the Mamluk Sultans Qatbay (r. 872–901 / 1468–96) and Qansuh al-Ghuri (r. 906–22 / 1500–1516).

How Object was obtained:

Purchased by the Museum in 1983.

How provenance was established:

Cairo and Damascus were the two most important centres of art production under the Mamluks.

Selected bibliography:

Haldane, D., Islamic Bookbindings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1983, pp.142–3 (listed as early Ottoman).

Raby, J. and Tanındı, Z., Turkish Bookbindings in the Fifteenth Century, London, 1993, p.11.

Citation of this web page:

Barry Wood "Bookbinding" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus02;18;en

Prepared by: Barry Wood
Copyedited by: Mandi Gomez


MWNF Working Number: UK2 19