Belt Fitting

Location: Central Asia or the Qipchaq steppe (Golden Horde)

Materials: silver sheet and wire, with repoussé, chased and engraved decoration and granulation

Dimensions: 8 x 4.1cm (including loop)

Accession Number: JLY 1825

Other Notes:

The belt fitting is decorated with a long-eared quadruped and a hare, both couchant with their heads turned back, beneath a spreading tree with a bird at the top, all executed in repoussé with chased details; the ground is textured with punches.

Five rivets with silver washers, visible on the back, would have secured the fitting to a belt.

Bibliography:

D. Alexander, The Arts of War. Arms and Armour of the 7th to 19th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume XXI, London 1992, cat.3, pp.30–31.
M. Spink & J. Ogden, The Art of Adornment, Jewellery of the Islamic Lands, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume XVII, Part Two, London 2013, cat.305, pp.400–01.
J.M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection, London 2010, cat.216, p.184.