Candlestick (1250–1350): Art, History and Details

Candlestick (1250–1350) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Candlestick
• Date: 1250–1350
• Culture: Eastern Anatolia
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: sheet brass inlaid with silver
• Dimensions: Overall: 24.4 cm (9 5/8 in.); Diameter of base: 21.3 cm (8 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Islamic Art
• Department: Islamic Art
• Accession number: 1951.539

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.