13th-century Islamic candlestick sold for $9.1m
A candlestick from the 13th century broke Sotheby’s record at auction for an object from the Islamic art world when it sold for £6.6 million ($9.1m) after a 25-minute bidding contest.
Describing it as “the finest example of Islamic metalwork on the market in over 10 years”, the auction house had estimated that the silver and goldinlaid brass candlestick would fetch between £2m and £3m.
Sotheby’s said the extended bidding “captivated the sale room”. Sotheby’s chairman for the Middle East and India told The National the figure was “fully justified”.
“The silver and gold-inlaid candlestick was the best of its kind, rare and beautiful and of a quality worthy of a major museum,” Edward Gibbs said.
Made in what is now northern Iraq in about 1275, the ornament had been in the same private collection since the 1960s and was recently exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The previous record for an Islamic object was held by the Debbane Charger, a 15thcentury Iznik dish that sold at Sotheby’s for $6.9m in 2018.
The new record-breaker was one of several valuable pieces on offer at Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World and India auction in London.
The sale, which is held twice a year, included historic objects, paintings and manuscripts spanning 10 centuries. The sale totalled $15.8m. A brass astrolabe signed by the Arab explorer Ibn Battuta sold for $686,000 and a Quran written in gold from 16th-century Persia went for $522,000.
The other top lot at the auction – a pair of diamond and emerald spectacles – caused a surprise by going unsold.
On offer at auction for the first time, the dazzling glasses were commissioned by an unknown prince in 17th-century Mughal India and were expected to sell for between $2m and $3.5m.
Sotheby’s said the “spectacular objects”, exhibited in New York, Hong Kong and London before the sale, had been admired everywhere and the auction house was confident a buyer would come forward.
“Anyone who has laid eyes on them is in no doubt that they are indeed something very special, and we have every faith that the huge interest we have seen will translate into a different result later down the line,” it said.