A 14th-century enameled and gilded lamp has become the most valuable glass item sold at auction, with a £5.1 million sale in London.
The piece is a Mamluk enamelled glass mosque lamp that was made for Chief of Corps Saif ad-din Sarghitmish in Egypt or Syria around AD 1351-1358.
Listed for sale with an estimate range of £600,000 to £1 million, it sold on Tuesday, November 12 at Bonhams in London for more than five times that top figure and around double the previous high for a glass piece.
The sellers, descendants of the first Prime Minister of Egypt, had come to regard the piece as decorative; it had been used as a vase for dried flowers.
Bonhams’ Nima Sagharchi, Head of Middle Eastern, Islamic and South Asian Art, said: “We are absolutely delighted with this result. The Sarghitmish lamp is a magnificent work of art and craftsmanship. Not only is this lamp extremely rare, it has an impressive and extensive exhibition history, having been showcased in some of Paris’ most important museums.”
Oliver White, Bonhams’ Head of Islamic and Indian Art, added: “The rarity of the object, together with this impressive provenance, make it one of the most important pieces of Islamic glassware ever to come to market.”
The lamp’s history is well known. It was shown at the Louvre in Paris in 1903.
Mosque lamps of the period were both extremely important religious and cultural objects and showpieces for the best makers.
The Mamluk dynasty ruled Egypt and at times most of what we now call the Middle East between the 13th and 16th Century.
Their glasswork was renowned, and no-one else in the world could match this sort of work at the time. This piece was gilded and enameled on glass with a pen made of reed or a brush.
Bonhams say: “The Sarghitmish lamp is one of the largest, most extensively published, and widely exhibited examples of its kind ever to come to market.”
The lamp was made for Sayf ad-Din Sarghitmish ibn Abdullah an-Nasiri, a Mamluk (Mamluks were originally freed slave warriors) emir who enjoyed prominence under Sultan al-Nasir Hasan (ruled 1347-1351, 1354-1361).
He built a madrasa in the southern part of Cairo, where this lamp probably hung.
A Roman glass cup from AD 300 was the previous most valuable glass item sold at auction. At a sale in London in 2004 it realised £2.6 million.
