A near-pair of Ottoman tombak lamps, Turkey, 17th century

each of baluster form with bulbous body, waisted neck and flaring rim, supported on a short splayed base, the body applied with three suspension hooks, the neck incised with a concave band of rosette petals, the rim with three openwork foliate cartouches enclosing paired saz leaves flanking a central rosette collar-set with a cabochon ruby

A dated silver hanging mosque lamp of similar form and decorated with an identical openwork cartouche of saz flanking a rosette is in the Türk ve Islam Eserleri Müzesi (Petsopoulos 1982, p.48, no.52). Originally from the shrine of Eyüp the lamp bears the assay mark of Osman II (r.1618-1622) and on the body are a further three incised inscriptions which give the name and titles of Osman II, stating that the lamp was the waaf of this Sultan to the Eyüp shrine, and gives the date of AH 1027/AD 1617-18.

These lamps are more ornate in their decoration and have been further embellished with collared beads in a gesture to what has been termed the 'Bejewelled Aesthetic' in Ottoman art (Petsopoulos 1982, p.21). This was a taste that was at its most prevalent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and is exuberantly expressed in the work on a gold water flask in the Topkapi Saray Museum (ibid., p.45, no.28). Stones were set into metal or jade and fastened to the surface of objects in all media in such a way that paid no heed to the base material or its form or texture. Often linked together and shaped like flowers, these set stones and their mounts would often completely overwhelm the object upon which they had been placed in a display of spectacular consumption.