Note: The term Veneto-Saracenic to describe engraved and often inlaid metalwares such as ours seems to have been coined by Stanley Lane-Pool (1886), who followed the 19th-century conviction that these objects were made by Muslim craftsmen working in Venice called azzimini (Stefano Carboni, Venice and the Islamic World 828 – 1797, France, 2007, p. 213 and 224). This thesis, however, was heavily contested and rejected in the 1970s. Indeed, scholarship now agrees that Veneto-Saracenic metalwares should be divided in three main groups: the Mamluk group, produced in Egypt and Syria and decorated in distinct bands of knots, roundels and scrolling stems clearly demarcated from each other by narrow fillets; the Mahmud al-Kurd group, produced in North Western Iran and Eastern Anatolia, even more decorated, inlaid and ornate than the Mamluk exemplars; and last but not least the Western group, mostly produced in Northern Italy and Germany, with much thinner inlays and with designs not following a circular or geometric grid (p. 218). Our example belongs to this third group.

Similarly to another Veneto-Saracenic dish now preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. no. 259-1894), our lot shows a few Westernised features such as its shape with the broad flat rim; its elaborate arabesques and knotwork decorations, finer that the ones normally present in the Mamluk group; and a more liberal arrangement of the decoration without following a mirror-like pattern or geometric grid.

Salver, Venetian-Saracenic; early 16th century. Brass, engraved and inlaid with silver. Diameter: 49.5 cm, Height: 5. Museum no. 259-1894. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

 Chiswick Auctions. Islamic & Indian Art including Fine Rugs & Carpets, 3 May 2019