A rare Ottoman leather matara (flask), Turkey, 16th/17th century

Ex-collection Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Abbotsford House, Scotland.

The shape of this flask harks back to its pre-Islamic, nomadic origins. John Carswell traces the form back to early leather vessels made of the hind quarters of a quadruped (Carswell 1998, p.84, no.64). Its importance as a portable object is echoed in its Persian, Turkish and Arabic names. According to the Dehkhoda Dictionary for the Persian language, a ‘matharah’ is described as a vessel used for ablutions before prayers, which could be hung on saddles when travelling and usually made of leather. In Turkish, the definition is similar, describing it as a ‘water carrier’ covered by leather or coarse wool (such as the wool worn by dervishes) and carried around one’s neck or waist whilst travelling or on a military campaign. In Arabic, the definition is similar, referring to a ‘flask’, which is also associated to the collection of water from zamzam, the well inside the Meccan sanctuary. 

A fascinating example of this form in glass is in the British Museum, London (inv. no.1869,0120.3), attributed to either the Ayyubid dynasty (circa 1250-60) or to a century later (circa 1340-60) by Rachel Ward (Ward ed. 1998, p.30). Later Ottoman examples were also produced from luxury materials such as gem-set rock crystal and tombak, see for example - Topkapi palace treasury, inv. no.TSK 2/484 and inv. no.TSK 2/474 for rock crystal examples and Sotheby's, London, 7 October 2009, lot 194 and Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no.1984.100, for tombak examples. The tombak examples copied leather archetypes by re-creating a stippled ground most probably imitating the grain of leather as well as dotted outlines around its arabesque design which match the look of a stitch and borders were designed as mock cording.

Such objects were not only reserved for the court but often acted as diplomatic gifts as highlighted by the leather canteen presented by Sultan Murad III to the Emperor Rudolf II, attributed to Turkey circa 1580, now in the  Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no.C.28, see Atil 1987, p.165, no.105). Another example includes a flask composed of leather decorated with silver, nephrite and precious stones now in the Moscow Kremlin (inv. no.TK-2882) which had originally been gifted to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (r.1645-76) (Konstantinovich Levykin 2009, pp.66-67, no.25). Two further comparable examples in leather are in the National Museum, Warsaw (inv. no.SKAZsz 2270, see Istanbul 1999 p.115, no.14) and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg. 

For further information on the development of the matara, see A. Roy, The development of the matara into a luxury objects through the Ottoman trade route, The Courtauld Institute of Art − Pera Museum − Gingko Library Conference, Barenboim-Said Akademie, Berlin, 18 - 19 November 2016.