A monumental Mamluk tinned copper basin, Egypt or Syria, late 15th / early 16th century

of beaten sheet metal, the body with tapering walls and a ridged rim, the outer walls engraved with a central register with circular medallions alternating with oblong cartouches filled with strapwork and naskh inscriptions, minor bands of strapwork and a frieze of lancet leaves below, later ownership inscription below rim

inscriptions
 
Owner's name: Hajj Mustafa azab (sic) ['azab]-bashi

'Hajj Mustafa, the officer in charge of chancellery clerks'

For a discussion of this group of late Mamluk metalwork, see The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Part One: Arts of the Islamic World, Sotheby's, 6 April 2011, lot 23.