Candlestick
Unknown Artist
1250–1350
Medium
sheet brass inlaid with silver
Dimensions
{"overall":{"height":0.244,"length":0.125},"diameter of base":{"width":0.213}}
Classification
Metalwork
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
1951.539
About this artwork
Candlesticks were a common type of luxury good in the Islamic world during the medieval period. The extensive decoration on this piece is arranged in bands with roundels displaying birds in flight and leaf-like scrolls on a background of hexagonal swastikas. These ancient motifs are thought to have been sun symbols and were sometimes used as a background pattern for metalwork at this time.