Large Ottoman Gilded Silver Shallow Bowl

This wide, shallow bowl is of silver that has been gilded (gold-plated). It is decorated all over in high relief with panels of leaf and pine-cone motifs. The central, raised roundel is repoussed in high relief with an interlaced motif which approximates to Sulaiman’s knot (Solomon’s knot). A border of Islamic script surrounds this. Possibly the bowl was used in a Christian church.

The edges of the bowl have been folded over to give the bowl greater structural integrity. But in any event, the silver sheet used in the construction is thick and the bowl is heavy in the hand.

The bowl is unmarked, suggesting that it has been produced not in Istanbul but in a more remote part of Ottoman Turkey.

Interestingly, the bowl has the form and dimensions of a large Ottoman Greek paten used in church services in (say) Istanbul and it might well have been used for this purpose. The inscription in the bowl being Islamic and not Greek does not exclude this function – some services in the Eastern Church were conducted in Arabic.

It is large and very decorative. The gilding has softened with time so that it now has a pleasing hue. The bowl is in excellent condition.