A Rasulid silver and copper-inlaid brass candlestick, mid-14th Century with Burji Mamluk socket, Syria or Egypt, late 15th century

the body of truncated conical form with a concave drip-pan inlaid in silver with a thuluth inscription set against a ground of undulating and spiralling foliate scrolls and separated by two large floral roundels each filled with overlapping leaves and floral patterns and centered on a five-petalled copper inlaid rosette blazon characteristic of the Rasulid dynasty, connected by a modern brass fixture to the later added Burji truncated conical socket, with a wide inscription band interrupted at intervals by a composite blazon

in overall good condition, as viewed.
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inscriptions
Round the rim, repetition of:

al-maqarr al-'ali al mawlawi

'The High Authority, The Lordly'

Round the body:

'izz li-mawlana wa malikana al-sultan al-malik/ al-mujahid sayf al-dunya wa al-din 'ali al-malik al-mu'ayyad

'Glory to our Lord and our Master, the Sultan, al-Malik al-Mujahid Sayf al-Dunya wa al-Din 'Ali al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad'

Round the inner base:

waqafa 'ala turba mawalina ... fahim bi'l-muayyadiyya

'... Fahim endowed [this] to the tomb of our Lord in Mu'ayyadiyya'

This large candlestick was made for Sultan al Malik al Mujahid Sayf Ad-din 'Ali (r.1322-1363), Rasulid ruler of Yemen. The Rasulid sultans of Yemen commissioned from Mamluk artists many metal and glass objects. The five-petalled rosette as seen on this candlestick is the heraldic emblem of the Rasulid dynasty and was traditionally inlaid with copper, a common practice among metalworkers to suggest the colour red (see Atil 1981, pg. 81). This feature as well as the thuluth inscription are shared by other works of metal and glass made for Rasulid rulers (ibid, nos.14, 22, 50).

Several objects with the name of the Rasulid sultan al Malik al Mujahid Sayf Ad-din 'Ali are recorded by Gaston Wiet in the Catalogue Général du Musée Arabe du Caire. Objets en Cuivre, Cairo, 1932, pp.217-219. Amongst this group are two candlesticks in Musée du Louvre and another formerly in the Hariri Collection. 

The composite blazon appearing on the socket dates to the reign of Sultan Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Qa'itbay (r.1468-1496 A.D.) (see Mayer 1933, p.32).