Stunning Islamic Treasures on Display in Los Angeles Museum

THE NATIONAL
By David D'Arcy

A comb from Turkey from the late 16th-17th century; rock crystal inlaid with gold and set with emeralds and rubies.

CALIFORNIA - Gifts of the Sultan shares a huge new building for temporary shows at the LA museum [Los Angeles County Museum of Art] with a Tim Burton retrospective and a survey of the work of the abstract sculptor David Smith. After it closes in Los Angeles on September, the show travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (October 23 to January 15) before it is moved to Doha. The exhibition begins with jewellery, which would have been most transportable and most valuable by weight. Some of the earliest works in the show are a pair of 11th-century gold bracelets decorated with repousse that came from Egypt or Syria. Gift-giving was a widespread practice under the Fatimid Dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 969 to 1171. From Ottoman Turkey, where gift-giving also flourished, a delicate rock crystal comb from the late 16th or 17th century is studded with emeralds. [link]