An Armenian silver bowl, Ottoman, Turkey, late 16th/ early 17th century

of shallow rounded form on a narrow foot ring, the interior with a central domed boss, decorated with repoussé with two confronting peacocks, the exterior with nine raised bosses with decorated with repoussé flowering plants, Armenian inscription to interior of foot ring

inscription

around the inside of the foot ring reads: Kr[istos] i Ds[a] ray Onabrios [servant of Christ [V]onobrios]. 

Onophrius the monk is mentioned in Armenian Lives of Saints whose feast day falls on the 6th of June.  The iconography of a bowl or chalice with two confronting peacocks is the standard image found in the Canon tables of Armenian manuscripts symbolising the immortality of Christ.

The inscription on this bowl is not original. A much longer inscription (probably in Georgian) has been erased and the Armenian inscription added. A similar example was offered by Christie's, 12 October 1999, lot 378, with an original Armenian inscription not a later addition as suggested in the catalogue and the correct translation read 'Krikor Petros who gave it to his spiritual son Thomas...'.  The date clearly stated in the inscription in the Armenian era is 1033/1584. 'Spiritual son' is the phrase used by clergy for the candidate ordained into the priesthood.