A Mamluk or Ottoman Shoulder Guard, Near East, 15th or 16th Century

Philippe Missillier Collection no.21C

A later shoulder piece of the same type forms part of an incomplete Ottoman cuirass formerly in the Stone Collection and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no.36.25.345). While that example is decorated with repoussé floral decoration associated with the late sixteenth and seventeenth century, the finer, more controlled calligraphy on the present shoulder piece suggest a fifteenth or sixteenth century date of manufacture.