Incense burner

Iran, Qajar period, 19th century

Hammered brass and engraved decoration with openwork. The entire lidded incense burner is decorated with geometric, foliate, calligraphic, and figurative motifs. Suns and foliate tendrils with flowers are the predominant motif in the ornamentation.

H: 44 cm, Diameter: 30.5 cm

UMP 4772

Brass incense burners were a typical vessel produced in nineteenth-century Iran. They are decorated with opulently engraved ornamentation and openwork of foliated motifs, calligraphic inscriptions, and especially figurative scenes referring to Persian epic poetry.

This incense burner is decorated with sun motifs – the official state symbol traditionally used in Iran from ancient times through Islamic dynastic rule and up to the present day. The sun combined with a lion became the symbol of the Qajar dynasty.

l Incense burners