of copper alloy and in excavated condition, of stepped circular form centred on a flat-topped dome, the outer border cast and chased with running vine leaves, the stepped border chased with three panels of stylised script against a ground of foliage and between three circular panels each containing a circular arrangement of seven spheres, the dome chased with borders of slipped quatrefoils, guilloche and lozenges, 15.3 cm diameter

Provenance

Philippe Missillier Collection, no. 145C

This circular fitting comes from a group with an uncertain designation. A.S. Melikian-Chirvani has proposed that they were either bucklers, used for combat practise, or covers for vessels or cymbals (Melikian-Chirvani 1979). More recent research has thrown doubt on these designations, on the grounds of materials and examination of surviving examples, proposing instead that they are door-bosses (Spink 2022, pp. 307-313).

The objects fall into two groups defined by their manufacturing technique of cast or beaten repoussé copper alloy. Most of the cast pieces were made in the 12th/13th century in eastern Iran and often inlaid with silver and copper, having legible benedictory inscriptions in cursive Arabic. Other cast examples have stylised, often illegible, inscriptions and date from the late 13th to early 14th century, after the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The beaten group includes pieces made between the 12th and 14th centuries. This roundel falls into the cast group made in the late 13th to early 14th century, with an illegible inscription. There is an extended discussion on the whole group in Spink 2022, pp. 307-313, with the closest comparison to this piece on p. 312, cat. 224, also dated to the late 13th/early 14th century.