A group of 16 Mamluk Carved Sycamore Wood panels, Egypt, Late 13th or early 14th Century

the central elements of pointed-hexagonal form carved with scrolling foliate palmettes enclosed by thin ebony fillets and an outer border of thin ivory fillets framing a wave-like pattern carved into a wooden ground, the outer elements of hexagonal and polygonal forms carved with stylised foliate motifs, with an outer border of plant figures carved into ivory plaques and thin ivory fillets set into a wooden ground

The quality of these panels (presented here as a central group of six elements flanked by five smaller pieces on each side) leaves no doubt that they come from one of the most remarkable minbars made under the Mamluks of Egypt towards the early part of their rule. Twelve panels identical to the central elements were exhibited at the much celebrated Die Meisterwerke für Muhammedanischer Kunst exhibition in Munich in 1910. On that occasion they were presented around a central star element to suggest a single large panel, one of the two main decorative elements (roundels) that would have appeared, one on either side, of the minbar. We have not been able to locate the present whereabouts of the panel exhibited in Munich, which at the time was in the Stora Collection, Paris (Published: Die Meisterwerke für Muhammedanischer Kunst , Munich, 1910-12, Tafel 250, kat. no. 2199).

The large size of each central element indicates that both the group of plaques exhibited in Munich and ours must originally have come from a monumental minbar rather than from a pair of doors, for which considerably smaller units were consistently employed. The original minbar must have been dismembered some time towards the end of the 19th century considering that a number of its elements were exhibited in Munich in 1910. Two octagonal plaques in the British Museum (inv. no. 1943/10-12) and one in the Cairo Museum (inv. no. 2877) bearing near-identical decoration, may also originate from the same minbar.

These panels exemplify the highest quality of early Mamluk wood carving. Nothing of comparable quality has ever appeared on the international market, with the exception of the carved octagonal wooden plaque from the minbar of Sultan al-Mansur al-Din Ladjin, dated 1296, now in the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar (Christie's London, 11 April 2000, sold for £480,000). Two further octagonal panels from the Ladjin minbar are in the David Collection, Copenhagen, D12/1986, and the Louvre (inv. no. unknown). Four additional rhomboidal panels from the Ladjin Minbar are also in the Louvre, inv. no. OA 6017 IV.

Examples of later Mamluk woodcarving from the 15th-century can be seen in the British Museum (inv. no. 10/12-14) and the Cairo Museum (inv. no. 2874). These two plaques show a cruder and flatter rendition of a traditional design, charting the degeneration of design reduced from a multi-layered carving to a single plane.