An Ottoman Steel Chanfron, Turkey, 16th Century

Philippe Missillier Collection no.18C

The chanfron forms an important component of any aristocratic set of ‘fine’ arms and armour and even the numerous plain steel chanfrons made from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century have strong sculptural qualities. The more luxurious examples are often vehicles for the names, titles, and visual language of their patrons. For example, an early Ottoman chanfron is engraved with the name of the Ottoman Sultan Selim (Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight, Milan: Skira, 2007, p.339, no.325). The decorative repertoire of that example represents a clear break from earlier Mamluk examples (e.g. Musée des Beaux Arts, Lyon, inv. no.D 377-1), with the Mamluk style of gold overlay replaced by deep engraving forming panels of dense arabesques. This latter style of engraving would remain the norm over the course of the sixteenth century and is abundantly present here.

The inscription of part of the thirteenth aya of the sixty-first Qur’anic surah, ‘Help from God and an imminent victory. So give good news [O Prophet] to the believers’, is a common inscription on arms and armour throughout the Islamic world, undoubtedly for its martial content. It is also inscribed on an Ottoman chanfron of the same date now in the David Collection, Copenhagen (inv. no.3/1979, Kjeld von Folsach, Fighting, Hunting, Impressing: Arms and Armour from the Islamic World 1500-1850, Copenhagen, p.181).