in three sections, set with banded agate in a silver-gilt mount with turquoise and colourful gemstones, in custom velvet-lined box

In general good condition, some of the stones missing, one or two replaced, foil backed, as viewed.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This beautiful staff was probably originally fitted with a wooden core, set in the ornately decorated silver-gilt mounts seen here, featuring rows of turquoise and pink gemstones on a gilt-metal base incised with petal motifs enhanced with painted details and surmounted by a carved piece of banded agate. It is closely comparable to a staff gifted by Shah Abbas I to Patriarch Filaret in 1629, attributed to Persia, late sixteenth/early seventeenth century with Russian additions in the late seventeenth century (The Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2009, no.17). Such staffs, also known as ‘zhezl or posokh’, were used by high members of the clergy in the Russian church, symbolically representing their spiritual authority at the moment of enthronement (ibid). A lithograph depicting a priest holding such a staff is in the Kremlin Museum, Moscow (see B. Shifman, G. Walton, Gifts to the Tsars: 1500 – 1700, Treasures from the Kremlin, exhibition catalogue, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2001).