Sotheby’s London Presents Beautiful and Rare Objects from Its April Sale of Arts of the Islamic World

LONDON.- Sotheby’s sale of the Arts of the Islamic World to take place in London on the 6th April will offer an array of beautiful and rare objects, paintings and manuscripts which highlight the achievements of artists and craftsmen from across the Muslim world. The sale is particularly rich in works which reveal the cultural efflorescence which took place during the Middle Ages on the Mediterranean seaboard from Islamic Spain to the Levant. A pre-sale exhibition will take place at Sotheby’s New Bond Street headquarters on the 1, 3, 4, 5 April 2011.

Treasures from Al-Andalus
Representing the heritage of Al-Andalus and North Africa is a pair of Almohad-period bronze doorknockers originating from the twelfth century (lot 299), estimated at £180,000 – 250,000, and a carved wooden door panel from fifteenth/sixteenth-century Spain or Morocco (lot 301), estimated at £100,000 – 150,000. Further highlights from Al-Andalus include three Hispano-Moresque lustre albarelli, including A Rare Nasrid Lustre Pottery Albarello, Spain, Malaga, Kingdom of Granada, late 14th/early 15th Century, estimated at £200,000 – 250,000 (lots 292, 294-5), and a rare thirteenth-century leather bookbinding tooled with the arms of Castile and León (lot 293), estimated at £50,000 – 70,000. From the Eastern Mediterranean region are two important works of art produced under the Fatimid and Mamluk dynasties: a monumental marble water jar, Egypt, eleventh-twelfth century (lot 288), estimated at £200,000 – 300,000, and a Highly Important Mamluk Armorial Candlestick made for Sayf al-Din Qushtumur, major-domo of Tuquztamur al-Hamawi, Mamluk viceroy of Egypt (1340-1) and Syria (1342-5), which was formerly in the Collection of Rudolf, Graf von Hoyos-Sprinzenstein (1821-1896) (estimated at £2,000,000 – 3,000,000) (lot 325).

Other highlights include a monumental double line from the ‘Baysunghur’ Qur’an, Herat or Samarqand, circa 1400, estimated at £300,000 – 500,000, A nearpair of Ottoman tombak lamps, Turkey, 17th century (estimated at £80,000 – 100,000), an Ottoman Firman bearing the tughra of Sultan Mehmed IV (r.1648-87), Turkey, Istanbul, dated 1091 AH/1680 AD (estimated at £100,000 – £150,000) and a rare Mughal gem-set gold spoon, India, 17th-18th century (estimated at £80,000 – 120,000).