Four Mamluk carved ivory plaques, Egypt, 14th century

Collection of Ernst and Marthe Kofler-Truniger, Lucerne, inv. no. K.493.Z
Acquired by Ernst and Marthe Kofler-Truniger from Collection O. Homberg, at auction, Georges Petit, Paris, 1908, cat. no.504

Kunsthaus, Zurich, Collection E. & M. Kofler-Truniger, 7th June - 2nd August 1964, cat. no.1037

Comparative material:
Migeon, Gaston, L'Orient musulman, Paris, 1922, p.13, illus. no.15

These delicately carved ivory plaques would originally have been part of a larger panel from a door, window, cupboard or minbar. The high-relief carving, consisting of half-leaves, trefoils and arabesque blades entwined and overlapping across different planes, is characteristic of 14th/15th-century work from Mamluk Cairo (cf. Atil 1981, nos.103-4, pp.206-9). Stylistic comparisons can also be drawn with the panel in the V&A (inv. no.891-1884) from the minbar of Sultan Lajin (r.1297-9) made for the mosque of Ibn Tulun in 1296.