Brown morocco leather, tooled and stamped in blind and gold, the upper cover decorated with a central ovoid medallion of gilt and blind-tooled knotted strapwork with small knotted excrescences around the medallion and in the corners of the main field, the border with concentric gilt rules and a narrow band of gilt ropework motif; the lower cover with a central gilt and blind-tooled cusped ovoid medallion decorated with four paired phoenixes and four paired fish on a ground of floral motifs, with foliate finials extending at the four points of the medallion; the fore-edge flap with a half-medallion of similar design and an inscription panel; the doublures of plain brown leather; labels of K. Minassian and Frances Hofer.

Kirkor Minassian, New York, circa 1930-40s
Adrienne Minassian, New York, 1950s
Philip and Frances Hofer Collection

This is a very rare and highly important binding whose decorative scheme places it firmly in the early Ilkhanid period, a period from which very few bindings survive. This example is notable for the extremely fine tooling of the medallions on both covers and the fore-edge flap, especially the exquisite paired phoenixes and fish.

The specific designs of the medallions are very interesting and allow us to pinpoint relatively accurately the date and origin of the binding. The upper cover bears an ovoid medallion filled with knotted motifs in gold and blind. This design is typical of bindings of the early Ilkhanid period in western Iran, and a very similar one can be seen on the binding of a manuscript of the Zij al-Ilkhani (astronomical tables) produced at Maragheh in 687/1288-9 (formerly in the Bibliotheca Phillippica, Sotheby's, London, 25 November 1968, lot 232). It can also be seen on the binding of the famous manuscript of the Manafi' al-Hayawan in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, of circa 1297-1300 (known as the Morgan Manafi', see Schmitz 1997, fig.1).

The design of the lower cover and the fore-edge flap is even more distinctive and indeed more aesthetically striking, with paired phoenixes and fish set on a floral ground. The paired phoenixes are typical Ilkhanid motifs and have close parallels in several different media. An early Ilkhanid textile of the 13^th century in a Los Angeles collection might easily have been the inspiration for a design such as we see on the binding, since textiles seem to have played a central role in the transfer of iconography and design in the Ilkhanid period (see Komaroff in Komaroff and Carboni 2002, pp.169-195).

Not only does the textile potentially provide the inspiration for the paired phoenixes, but also for the floral ground, although in the binding the flowers are more uniform and symmetrical. Similar floral grounds are found extensively in Ilkhanid art, the textiles and furniture featured in the Edinburgh manuscript of Rashid al-Din's Jami al-Tavarikh, dated 1314, and the Great Mongol Shahnama of the 1330s being particularly rich in them, as well as Sultanabad and lustre-ware ceramics (see Talbot Rice 1976, nos. 16, 18, 56, ♒58, 70; Komaroff and Carboni 2002, figs.37, 59, 79, 149, 150, 2🔯08, 227, 228, 230, 242).

The use of similar p⛦hoenix-like birds can also be seen on Ilkhanid ceramics of the late 13th and early 14th centuries, such as Kashan tiles or Sultanabad ware (see, for instance, examples in the Musée du Louvre, Paris and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, illustrated in Komaroff and Carboni 2002, cats.133 and 134, pp.꧟178, 201).

The motif of the fish, seen here in pairs at the acute ends of the medallion, 🥀was also popular in Ilkhanid times, and can be seen frequently on ceramics of the late 13th to early 14th centuries and on the inside of Fars brass bowls of the 14th century, often depicted swimming in a pool of water, as seen from above (see Komaroff and Carboni 2002, figs. 238, 239).

Perhaps the closest comparison to the medallion on the lower cover can be found on a drawing in an album in the Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul (see Roxburgh 2005, fig.53, p.101). The d♏rawing, one of a large group of designs and sketches of the 14th century assembled into the album during the Timurid period, is itself a design for a binding, and the parallels between the two are striking, right down to the cusped edges of the medallion.

Finally, the two exquisitely tooled foliate finials that extend from the points of the medallion on the lower cover are also distinctly Ilkhanid in design, and similar motifs can be found in illumination in various manuscripts and album pages of the period, including the monumental Qur'an made for Sultan Öljaytu at Mosul between 1307 and 1310 and another Ilkhani♚d Qur'an dated 1340-41, as well as a series of calligraphic pages of the 1330s and 1340s assembled into the Timurid Baysunghur album (see Lings 2005, no.64-68 and James 1988, fig.114, cat.65, Roxburgh 2005, figs.20-28).

The inscription on the hinge of the for꧑e-edge flap is a frag⛦ment of verses in Persian. The covers and doublures are original, the leather hinges have been repaired.