A Khurasan bronze bird-form incense burner, Persia, 12th century

inscriptions:

barakah wa yumn

'Blessing and good-fortune'

Birds occupy a pre-eminent place in the Islamic decorative vocabulary, symbolising freedom of mind and spiritual elevation. While bird finials decorate a large number of Iranian metalworks, a smaller group of vessels associated to Khurasan is cast entirely in the shape of birds. These are commonly thought to relate to a contemporary group of feline-shaped incense burners, and present a wealth of forms and engravings (Atil et al 1985, p.89). They include partridges, ducks, doves and falcons.

The present bird shares a number of features with various examples from the wider group. The shape of the beak relates to that of a dove in the David Collection (inv. no.17/1967, published in Meyer 2015, cat. no.3, p.22), and its round head surmounted with a feather-like finial is reminiscent of a bird in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no.2008.460), while the ceramic eyes match those of a falcon in the Louvre (inv. no.OA 4044 bis). These are thought to be good luck talismans, intended to ward off the evil eye (Atil et al 1985, p.89). Our object's closest comparable example remains a bird in the al-Sabah collection (inv. no.LNS 1219 M) of very similar size and shape. Both animals rest on curved claws and have a small finial on top of their heads as well as a very distinctive upper tail. The particularity of these two bird-shaped prototypes is their inner compartment, which is revealed by lifting their hinged neck from their body, rather than through a rectangular opening on the chest like most other bird models. This is a feature they share with most known examples of feline-shaped vessels, and which might indicate, according to Michael Rogers, that they were used as pomanders rather than incense burners. Besides, the present bird shares some decorative features with a feline model sold in these rooms, 27 October 2021, lot 191, including its quatrefoil roundels and the openwork arabesques that adorn its neck. These are also reminiscent of the engravings on a bronze cockerel in the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (inv. no.AKM602, published in Kim et al 2014, p.104).