A rare and important Seljuk niello silver bowl Siberia or Central Asia, 11th/ 12th CenturyA rare and important Seljuk niello silver bowl Siberia or Central Asia, 11th/ 12th Centuryof deep rounded form with slightly everted rim, engraved to the well with a quatrefoil roundel containing a peacock on a ground of scrolling tendrils, the exterior decorated in niello with a band of inscription on a ground of scrolling foliate interlace 20 cm. diam.ProvenanceAcquired by Sumer Gallery in 1971 from a European private collection.Acquired at Sumer Gallery, New York in June 1996. Inscriptions: al-barakah al-da'imah wa al-dawlah wa al-sa'adah wa al-salamah wa al-kiramah wa al-qudrah wa al-raf'ah wa al-ni'mah wa al-nusrah wa al-surur wa al-'ala wa al-baqa li-sahibihi, 'Perpetual glory and wealth and happiness and well-being and honour and strength and elevation and (God's) grace and victory and joy and sublimity and long-life to its owner'.Niello silver items of this type from the Seljuk period are exceptionally rare. Other examples can be found in The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (a ewer, inv. no. 797-vz), and in the 'Hariri Hoard' in the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art. Another is discussed in B.I. Marshak, 'An Early Seljuq Silver Bottle from Siberia', in Muqarnas, vol. 21, 2004, pp. 255-265. A jug sold at Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World & India, 27 October 2021, lot 169, and dated to the 11th/ 12th Century is attributed to Siberia or Central Asia. It is likely that our bowl belongs to the same tradition of silverware produced in the eastern provinces of the Islamic empire.