Incense Burner in the Form of a Bird

Period Seljuq Empire (Turkish, 1037 - 1194)

Place of OriginIran

Date11th-12th century

Dimensions4 × 9 1/4 × 7 in. (10.2 × 23.5 × 17.8 cm)

Mediumbronze

ClassificationMetalwork

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1989.115

Not on View

DescriptionCast, chased, and pierced with engraved decoration.

Label TextBurning incense, or thurification, was widely practiced in the Islamic world. Incense burners like this bronze partridge-like bird would be used at ceremonial and courtly events. Aromatic smoke wafted over guests from the openwork vines decorating the bird’s body. When the animal is tilted, the bowl suspended from its underbelly could be filled with incense—such as frankincense, musk, agarwood, or ambergris—and then lit.Published References"Principales acquisitions des musees en 1991," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, v. 119, no. 1478, Mar. 1992, repr. p. 57.Comparative ReferencesSee also Dimand, M.S., "A Seljuk Incense Burner," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 10, 1952, pp. 150-153.

cf. Shepherd, D.G., "A Lion Incense Burner of the Seljuk Period," Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 44, no. 6, 1957, pp. 115-118, and frontispiece.

cf. Grabar, Oleg, Persian Art Before and After the Mongol Conquest, exhibition catalogue, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, April 9-May 17, 1959, no. 47.

cf. Harari, Ralph, "Metalwork After the Early Islamic Period," A Survey of Persian Art, ed. Arthur Upham Pope, London and New York, reprint, 1964-1965, vol. 6, pp. 2466-2529, and vol. 12, pls. 1276-1396.

cf. Melikian-Chirvani, A.S., Le Bronze iranien, Paris, 1973.

cf. Leth, A., The David Collection: Islamic Art, Copenhagen, 1975, p. 65, no. 24/1968 and fig. p. 66.

cf. Fehervari, Geza, Islamic Metalwork of the Eighth to the Fifteenth Century in the Keir Collection, [Ham, Richmond], London, 1976, nos. 110, 112, 113, pl. 37, a-c.

cf. Handbook, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 1978, p. 265 (a vessel, not an incense burner).

cf. Allan, James W., Nishapur: Metalwork of the Early Islamic Period, New York, 1982, pp. 17-18, 43-44, p. 104, fig. 187, p. 86, fig. 101, p. 87, no. 101.

cf. Melikian-Chirvani, A.S., Islamic Metalwork from the Iranian World, 8th-18th Centuries, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1982.

cf. Baer, Eva, Metalwork in Medieval Islamic Art, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1983, esp. pp. 57-60.

cf. Atil, Esin, W.T. Chase and Paul Jett, Islamic Metalwork in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985, p. 88, no. 11 (not an incense burner).

cf. Ishiguro, K., Ancient Art, Mr. and Mrs. K. Ishiguro Collection, Tokyo, 1986, no. 124, pp. 188-189.