Bath Box

Bath Box

The techniques of marquetry and inlaying of wood with contrasting material have always enjoyed great popularity in Egypt, going back to Pharaonic times, seen for example in the material of the tomb of Tutankhamun. Fine Islamic work in the technique dating from the ninth century can be found in museum collections in America, Europe, and the Middle East—especially in Cairo, in the Museum of Islamic Art and in the hundreds of examples in the mosques, madrasas (religious schools), and mausoleums. The right-angle linear interlace that surrounds the main panels of decoration, as well as the motifs that fill the elongated cartouche-shaped panel on the front and the lozenge-shaped panel on the top, descend directly and with little change from ninth-century Egyptian marquetry (exemplified by pieces in the Metropolitan and the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo), which in turn can be traced back to Roman mosaic floors. The so-called Star of David motifs, as well as the patterns of stars and hexagons within them, are also derived from Roman art, especially floor mosaics, and are particularly popular in marquetry and woodwork of the Islamic period. The outside borders of alternating hexagons and elongated hexagons appear first in Seljuq architectural ornament and subsequently enjoyed popularity as borders for a variety of media, including bookbindings and carpets.

Despite the profusion of old motifs present on this box, the background with its flowering sprays, particularly the tulip blossoms, gives a sure indication of its Ottoman date.

Manuel Keene in [Berlin 1981]

Lily S. Place, Cairo (until 1921; gifted to MMA)

"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 110, pp. 260–61, ill. p. 261 (b/w).

Bates, Ülkü. Re-Orientations: Islamic Art and the West in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. New York, 2008. no. 29, pp. 88–89, ill.