Yours for £3 million: Ancient bronze buck on display in Dubai

Sotheby's to put sculpture - one of Islamic art's earliest pieces - under the hammer next month

Unusually, the Umayyad-era bronze buck is signed with the name of the maker and previous owner. Photo: Sotheby's

A bronze buck from the Umayyad era is on display in Dubai before heading to auction with an estimated sale price of up to £3 million ($4 million).

Sotheby's is showcasing the eight-century sculpture as part of its Arts of the Islamic World and India sale. The piece, on display in the city for the first time until Friday, is described as being in a "remarkable state" and will form part of a lot that includes an ancient Quran, jewellery, manuscripts and art.

“This bronze buck represents one of the earliest expressions of artistic creation in the Islamic world,” Benedict Carter, of Sotheby’s, tells The National. “The buck has an extraordinary force and energy as an object, combining both technical mastery and beauty, not to mention its remarkable state of preservation, showing that it has always been a prized object throughout its 1,200-year history.”

The auction house says the buck helps shed light on the understanding of figurative sculpture during the early Islamic period. In particular, it is one of only a handful of known early animal aquamaniles with an inscription, which includes the name of the maker, Abdallah ibn Thabit, and previous owner, Ubaydallah ibn Jaber.

The buck is on show at Sotheby's DIFC. Photo: Sotheby's

“The significance is perhaps more that it is signed at all, as we know little about the actual craftsman Abdallah ibn Thabit,” Carter, who is head of the house's Islamic and Indian art, says. “Having a documentary inscription in Arabic, in a particularly early form of Kufic script, places the buck in the Arab Islamic world, rather than in pre-Islamic times, alongside only a handful of other early metalwork pieces, adding to the art-historical knowledge of this period.”

Carter says the owner was likely to have been a high-ranking individual to have such a sculpture. “Even in the eighth century, items such as this were considered objects of high luxury, by no means commonplace, and reserved for courtly individuals of high status,” he adds.

“While we know a good deal about Umayyad-period architecture, very few items of material culture have survived, which is why this object, with its documentary inscription, is so important.”

Other pieces to go under the hammer in London on October 23 include an illuminated Quran by the master calligrapher Ya'qut al-Musta'simi in Baghdad dated around 1275 which is expected to fetch up to £800,000. Plus, 12 elegant pottery dishes from Iraq dated between the ninth and 10th centuries, valued at up to £60,000.

The day before the sale, Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary Middle East collection will go under the hammer. It will include pieces by the likes of Saudi artist Mohammed Al Saleem and Lebanese artists Willy Aractingi, Aref El Rayess and Ayman Baalbaki, which are also on display in Dubai.

The Spring, the Flowers by Lebanese artist Aref El Rayess painted in 1971. Photo: Sotheby's

“We are showing a small, focused selection of works in Dubai which have all been sourced from the region and that focus on both modern pioneers and the contemporary generation,” Alexandra Roy, who is leading the sale, says.

“One of the unifying factors about the artists whose works are represented is that they share both a local and international platform. All four have lived and studied at some point in their lifetime in Europe, but also produced works which are highly relevant and inspired by their homeland.”

Each of the works on show reveals an interesting facet of the pictorial and thematic concerns of the artist. For example, El Rayess’s work The Spring, the Flowers (1971), which is estimated to fetch up to £120,000, is an example of his interest in exploring themes of identity and nature via his use of floral work and the interplay between flatness and geometric forms.

Untitled (1960) by Al Saleem, considered Saudi’s foremost modern master, is a pictorial balance between both modern and traditional aesthetics, as well as abstraction and figuration. It has an estimated sale price of up to £100,000.

Displaying such paintings alongside historic Islamic artworks, Roy says, is a unique way to experience the diversity of style and inspiration from craftsmen and artists of the region over time.

“Art has always been quite international, and so looking at the Islamic works, which also feature a wide variety of influences, further confirms the wide breadth of inspirations used by artists from the region.”

Islamic Art and Modern and Contemporary Art will run until Friday at Sotheby's Dubai, the DIFC