Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 6. (Budapest, 1963)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM - MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Ferenczy, László: Daghestan Bronze Cauldrons

Fig. 2. Daghestan bronze cauldron from the Ethnographical Museum in Budapest (from the collection of Jenő Zichy) specimens preserved in different collections : one in the Moser Collection (Historical Museum, Bern), another in the Stuart Welch Collection (Cambridge, U. S. A.). M. van Berchem mentioned a third cauldron by this master, which however, may be identical with one of the aforesaid.

7 The earlier statement to the effect that Arabic inscriptions were discerned on the brim of a cauldron in the Ethnographical Museum in Budapest, derived from the Zichy Collection (Fig. 4), is erroneous.

8 At first examination the elements of the decoration remind us of an Arabic inscription, a more thorough inspection, however, proves the falseness of this impression. It is also made unlikely by the fact that the two halves of the ornament are almost perfect reflections of each other. At the most one might concede that the master wdio made the cauldron knew the Arabic letters but, without knowledge of their exact forms, applied them merely as ornamental elements or simply imitated them. No date is given on the Daghestan bronze cauldrons known so far. Near the territory of Albania, at the wall of the Agar cin Monastery in Northern Armenia a large-size bronze cauldron of a similar shape, with cross-shaped projections on the brim, was found with an inscription in Armenian and the date 1232. The history and the problems of dating the Daghestan bronze cauldrons was dealt with by I. Orbeli in his pioneer comprehensive study.

9 From an ethnographical and technical point of view the more recent work on the Kubachi people by E. M. Shilling, based on the data and objects gathered during his trips to the Caucasus between 1925 and 1944, is very important too.

10 We have two principal bases on which to date the Daghestan cauldrons : the analysis of the decoration and forms of Arabic inscriptions. However, these can be utilized only with the utmost caution and reserve, since the moulds used for casting the cauldrons were in use for several generations, as it is seen on two cauldrons of the Hermitage. In dating we must therefore fully analyse the casting technique of the given specimen. With these in mind Orbeli dated a considerable part of the Daghestan bronze cauldrons known at the beginning