Early Medieval Metalwork

The metalwork holdings in the Khalili Collection are wide ranging and diverse, dating from the 7th century to the 20th century, and covering most of the Islamic world, from the Mediterranean to Brunei, and from Egypt to Central Asia. The Collection includes a significant number of important, signed or dated pieces. With over 900 entries, this four-part volume considers almost every type of vessel encountered in Islamic metalwork. The pieces are grouped according to their form and function and categories include vessels used for ablutions, food, drink, lighting and furniture. The large number of objects has also allowed for a detailed discussion of variations and developments within object types such oil lamps, mortars, jugs and ewers. The catalogue is accompanied by a number of introductory essays examining the principal periods into which the volume has been divided. Other essays consider the importance of silver within the study of Islamic metalwork in the pre-Mongol period; the range of animal forms found in metal in the medieval period; the significance of astrological imagery; and metalwork from the Mamluk and post-Mamluk revival periods. Finally, the technology of Islamic metalwork is examined in detail, with a discussion of medieval literary sources, and an examination of metals and their alloys, their sources and methods of manufacture.

Michael Spink is an Independent researcher, lecturer and writer on Islamic and Indian art, and a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain. He is co-author of The Art of Adornment, the catalogue of Islamic jewellery in the Khalili Collection.

Professor Doris Behrens-Abouseif is the former Nasser D. Khalili Chair of Islamic Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She is a specialist in the arts, architecture and history of the Mamluks, and has written extensively on these and other subjects.

Dr Melanie Gibson is a specialist in the ceramics, glass and sculpture of the Islamic world, subjects on which she has published several works. She is a contributor to other volumes of the Khalili Collection catalogue and is series editor of the Gingko Library Art Series.

ISBN 978-1-874 78088-5

CONTENTS
Part 1
Foreword
Sir Nasser D. Khalili

Metalwork of Iran, Western and Central Asia, 5th–8th century
Michael Spink

Catalogue 1–40

Early Islamic metalwork: western areas and Iran
Michael Spink

Catalogue 41–66

High-tin bronze from Sistan, Khurasan and Transoxania
Michael Spink

Catalogue 67–103

Silver in the pre-Mongol Islamic period, 650–1220
Michael Spink

Pre-Mongol Iran to 1220
Michael Spink

Early medieval metalwork from Iran
Michael Spink

Catalogue 104–274

A menagerie in metal
Melanie Gibson

Inscriptions

Index

Concordances

Part 2
Early medieval metalwork from Iran (continued)
Michael Spink

Catalogue 275–460

The Mongols (1220–1335) and the later 14th century
Michael Spink

Catalogue 461–497

Cilician Armenia
Michael Spink

Catalogue 498–499

Sicily and the Mediterranean sea
Michael Spink

Catalogue 500–503

The Jazira, Syria and Anatolia circa 1100–1260
Michael Spink

Catalogue 504–534

Astrology
Michael Spink

Catalogue 535

Inscriptions

Index

Concordances

Part 3
Iran in the 15th century: Timurid (1370–1507), Qaraqoyunlu (1351–1469) and
Aqqoyunlu (1396–1508)
Michael Spink

Catalogue 536–555

Mamluk metalwork
Doris Behrens-Abouseif

Catalogue 556–591

Ottoman metalwork, 1453–1924
Michael Spink

Ottoman silver
Michael Spink

Catalogue 592–636

Indian metalwork, 15th–19th century
Michael Spink

Catalogue 637–781

Inscriptions

Index

Concordances


Part 4
Safavid metalwork, 1501–1722
Michael Spink

Catalogue 782–822

Qajar Iran, 1779–1925
Michael Spink

Catalogue 823–862

From post-Mamluk to Mamluk revival: the art of metal in Egypt and Syria after the
Ottoman conquest of 1517
Doris Behrens-Abouseif

Catalogue 863–887

Metalwork on the frontiers of Islam
Michael Spink

Catalogue 888–897

Technology
Michael Spink

List of Signatures

Metallurgical analysis

Inscriptions

Bibliography

Index

Concordances

La crosse de Saint-Germain, par Nathalie Ginoux, Christophe Moulherat et Nathalie Fleury, in Les temps mérovingiens,  Dossier d'Archéologie Hors-série n° 31, octobre 2015-p. 50-57.

L’imagerie numérique 3D au service de l’orfèvrerie mérovingienne, l’exemple de la crosse de Saint Germain.

Link to pictures and figure captions: https://exarc.net/issue-2018-4/at/viking-jewellery-mould-making-experimental-and-reconstructive-aspects

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Abstract: Craftsmanship relies upon the silent knowledge of the skilled experience of the creative workings of the hands, a knowledge that is difficult to convert to written characters without creating a blur of words that make very little sense. Theoretical reasoning lacks the dialogue with, and the resistance from, the raw material. Making up a picture of how wax, clay and metal would behave without practical experience of them is next to impossible. You must work with the material directly to get proper answers. After nearly 600 recorded castings with reconstructed early medieval casting technology behind me, and just as many unrecorded, I may perhaps consider myself a craftsman almost as much as I am an archaeologist, and I would like to share a little of what I have learned from these experiences.

The French version of an exploration of Armenian manuscript art for a vast exhibition catalogue on the occasion the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing, 1512-2012.  The exhibit was held in the famous Correr Museum in the Piazzo San Marco using book items from its rich collection with loans from the Mekhitarist Brotherhood collection at San Lazzaro in the Venice lagoon and from various collections in Yerevan, Armenia.

This article discusses the chronology and nature of the earliest Viking activity, based on a group of early burials from Norway containing Insular metalwork. By focusing on the geographical distribution of this material and applying the concept of locational and social knowledge, the importance of establishing cognitive landscapes to facilitate the Viking expansion is highlighted. It is argued that the first recorded Viking attacks were only possible after a phase in which Norse seafarers had acquired the necessarily level of a priori environmental knowledge needed to move in new seascapes and coastal environments. This interaction model opens the possibility that some of the early Insular finds from Norway may represent pre-Lindisfarne exploration voyages, carried out by seafarers along the sailing route of Nordvegr.

Ornately bound gospel books served as the centerpieces of liturgical and imperial ceremonies throughout early eleventh-century Germany. This project is the first examination of Ottonian treasury bindings as a discrete type and explores the ways in which these covers negotiated the complex relationships between viewers and the Word of God. A cross-disciplinary approach that draws on reception theory, aesthetics, history, liturgical studies, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience is used
to provide a new model for working with liturgical objects once dismissed as primarily decorative.
Chapter 1 introduces the six case studies of the project: the Codex Aureus of Echternach (Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum); the Reichenau Gospels (Munich, Clm 4454); the Pericopes of Henry II (Munich, Clm 4452); the Uta Codex (Munich, Clm 13601); the Theophanu Gospels (Essen, Münsterschatz); and the Aachen Covers (Domschatz). The second chapter explores the traditions of early medieval cover design, which Ottonian creators copied and adapted. I propose that the patrons and artists of the treasury bindings utilized visual formulae in order to efficiently communicate with audiences. Chapter 3 begins with a reconstruction of the Easter vigil of Bamberg Cathedral, and then examines the other ceremonies in
which treasury bindings were used to establish the original viewing contexts of the




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covers. Further situating the covers, the chapter ends with an exploration of the role of luxury bindings in the collections of religious institutions and elite patrons.
The final chapter explores the Ottonians’ relationship to the written word, and offers an innovative analysis of how treasury bindings captured viewer attention and functioned in a performative context. To highlight how precious materials shaped viewer reception, the chapter reconciles a variety of medieval statements about the function and meaning of such materials with the findings of modern neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists. I demonstrate that Ottonian artists exploited innate and learned responses to different visual elements, such as reflective materials, centralized compositions, and the human face, in order to attract viewer attention. These visually captivating covers then reflected and amplified the spoken words of the liturgy and
provided visual exegesis about the contained scripture.

Le moule d’orfèvre qui fait l'objet de cet étude a été trouvé dans la fortification Tropaeum Traiani (1973), à l'interieur d’un édifice appartenant au niveau N VIA, daté à la fin du VIe siècle et le commencement du VIIe siècle.. Suivant les auteurs, les menues trouvailles faites à l'intérieur de cette construction suggèrent son appartenance à un bijoutier.
Le moule de Tropaeum Traiani est une pièce unique dans les cités fortifiées de la période romano-byzantine en Dobroudja. Les moules d’orfèvre trouvés à Capidava,
Aegyssus et a l’Argamum ne correspondent pas du point de vue du style à celui de Tropaeum Traiani. Par rapport aux moules trouvés dans l’autres villes de l’Empire Byzantin (par exemple, Caričin Grad - Justiniana Prima en Serbie) les pièces de Dobroudja représentent des formes assez rustiques. Les moules en pierre datés de la
période du VIe au VIIe siècle, avec les cavités analogues au moule de Tropaeum Traiani, sont connus en Europe centrale et occidentale, notamment sur les territoires des
civilisations Praque et Pen'kovka. Les moules avec des pendentifs en forme de triangles sont aussi connus par plusieurs sites archéologiques de l’Europe du Nord-Est jusqu’au VIIIe – Xe siècles.Dans cette étude, en analysant ce moule trouvé à Tropaeum Traiani, l'auteur a essayé de démontrer que la problématique du contact entre Scythia Minor et le territoire entre le bassin du Dniestr moyen et du Dniepr moyen à l’aube du Moyen Âge est une question complexe et elle nécessite des recherches systématiques, menées en parallèle à une analyse des découvertes anciennes. La carte des découvertes (encore provisoire) confirme les hypothèses antérieures à propos sur la concentration de ces objets dans les cités fortifiées de la période antique tardive et dans les environs de Dobroudja, associées aux Antes qui sont archéologiquement définies par la culture Pen’kovka.

This article is an exploration of medieval sheath fittings and a call for metal detector users

Object identification and classification

Sheath fittings were metal bands riveted to the leather of a knife, dagger or sword scabbard or sheath. They are divided into chapes to shield the point and mounts to decorate the leather or protect the flanks. Fittings were usually bronze alloy, cast in a singular or dual mould with two faces. Closed work and open work styles were produced and folded nearly one hundred and eighty degrees before being chiselled with a sharp tool. Subsequently they were riveted to a leather sheath or composite scabbard.

There are six classes, A, B, C, D, E and F, in the typology. These are based on the form of the fitting, types within each class are specific to shape. Most are slender, measuring between twenty and sixty millimetres in height and between twenty and forty millimetres in width. Many sheath and scabbard fittings are not recovered intact, but survive as fragments of the scabbard plate. The arm extension is the most common point of fracture. Some types are distinctive and currently composed of singular finds.
Current Knowledge

Fittings of this style currently date from the tenth to thirteenth centuries and are found in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Demark, England, Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland. Minute differences, such as style of chiselling, suggest local styles and cultures effected design . Höxter, Germany and Lund, Sweden appear to be workshops .

Motifs range from simple geometric shapes or curvilinear lines to zoomorphic and anthropomorphic imagery. The most decorative are birds, bridled horses, copulating beasts, winged horses and mythical creatures. The fold could be used to produce the face of the beast or man that is portrayed in profile on each side. They are a diverse group, with many unique elements like terminals and attachment arms. 
Aims of the Chapes Research Project

The purpose of the project is to advise and enthral those interested in medieval fittings. The aim is to create a typology and analyse folded medieval fittings from medieval Europe. Evaluation of the distribution, iconography and manufacture in relation to deposition context are key objectives.

Several papers are currently underway by the Chapes Research Project and a full manuscript in due course. The results of the project provide greater indications for trade and influence of cultures as well as European and local social patterns. Few fittings have been recovered from Belgium or the Netherlands. The singular recorded find from Belgium was a class E chape from Michem, West Flanders.

Classification will greatly improve the knowledge of not only Belgian finds and medieval society, but also European material and how the region related to neighbouring districts.

If you have discovered any yourself it would be fascinating to have your input for future publications. If you would like any more information on the project please let us know. All support will be acknowledged and recognition provided for theories and objects offered. If you know of any published, unpublished, or excavated examples or have any suggestions feedback will be gratefully received.

Alice Blackwell recently suggested that the terminals of the pseudo-penannular Hunterston, ‘Tara’ and Dunbeath brooches conceal embedded animal heads which flank a Christological symbol on the bridge linking the two terminals. She interpreted this as a motif based on the Canticle of Habakkuk’s statement that Christ would be recognised between two living things. Her argument is based on the shape of the terminals and on the placement of the studs, which she suggested echo the design of filigree animals ornamenting the front surfaces of these brooches. This paper, which is based on detailed study of the brooches and on analytical drawings of their animal ornament, challenges Alice Blackwell’s suggestion, and offers a different explanation for the features that she identified.

A forensic cultural examination of metalwork from early medieval Southern Italy including the enigmatic Castellani Group of gold insignia. Appears as Chapter Four of my PhD thesis.

Citation: T. Goskar, ‘Objects, people and exchange: Material culture in medieval southern Italy, c.600-1200’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Southampton (2009).

The exhibition catalogue essay discussion the various form and function of Armenian liturgical instruments and accessories for the altar as well as some reliquaries. The text is followed by the illustrations of 35 liturgical objects accompanied by notices for each; these will be posted later on the site.

Paper-a: The paper focuses on a single case study (Cutry, Meurthe-et-Moselle), a settlement with a few generations of inhabitants, to examine how dress was implicated in lifecycles, rites of transition, or as strict or more flexible indicators of femininities/masculinities. The artefactual data is compared with that available osteologically to probe the construction of gender and its negotiation across generations. Transmission of memory and other strategies of communication are explored at a number of levels employing the analysis of artefacts in close relation to the body. The challenges in the interpretation of artefacts and dress accessories in the furnished burials of mature and young individuals will be addressed in the search for their multi-layered identities as expressed in dress in the process of their transitions in life. This analysis was facilitated by accessible archives on osteological and artefactual material which made possible the reconstruction of specific age and gender profiles of individuals.

I prepare high-quality illustrations of art objects or historical buildings for museums and academics to use in publications and related work. You can appreciate a small selection of my works at: https://sites.google.com/site/matildegrimaldi/
Please do take the time to look at my works, and do not hesitate to contact me for any enquiry!
matilde.grimaldi@gmail.com