AN EARLY SAFAVID PIERCED BRONZE PROCESSIONAL STANDARD (ALAM), PERSIA, DATED 924 AH/1518 AD

Of drop form, surmounted by a small jar, the cut-steel body around two central drop shapes formed of solid steel engraved with scrolling vine, a broad outer border with surah Al-Ikhlas in elegant thuluth on a ground of scrolling vine, surrounded on the outside by a solid band issuing alternating pendants.
Length: 52.5 cm.

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Germany

CATALOGUE NOTE
Standards, military, religious and royal, can be traced back through the history of Persia, and examples have been noted in Luristan, Achaemenid and Sasanian art. The use of steel or brass standards in Islam can be traced back to at least the 14th century and their current form, with almond-shaped centre, ornamental point and dragons' heads turning outwards, dates back to the mid-15th century, as documented in miniature paintings. A miniature from the 1475-81 Khamseh of Nizami, produced in Tabriz and now in the Topkapi Saray Museum shows thirteen examples of this type of standard (Basil Gray, The Arts of the Book in Central Asia, Unesco, 1979, pl. 134).