LONDON // A rare Islamic crystal jug, mistaken earlier this year for a cheap French claret pitcher, is expected to sell for millions of dirhams at auction. The 100-year-old rock crystal ewer - one of only seven of its kind known to exist - is the highlight of Christie's Oct 7 sale of Islamic and Indian art, with an estimated price of at least Dh21 million.
The piece caused controversy in January when Lawrence's auction house in the south-west of England identified it as a 19th century French claret jug and offered it for sale at around Dh700.
Some collectors, however, sensed the item to be more special than the price tag assigned to it. After a bidding war, the jug sold for Dh1,540,000, more than 1000 times the list price.
Christie's has since said that the jug is now identified as "one of the rarest and most desirable works of art from the Islamic world".
The auction house added that the original sale had been annulled by agreement between the purchaser and the original owners, who all wish to remain anonymous.
The slim-necked vessel, carved from a single piece of rock crystal and decorated with elaborate engravings of cheetahs, was made for the court of the Cairo-based Fatimid dynasty, which ruled a swath of the Middle East and North Africa between AD908 and 1187.
"If it's as genuine as they say it is, then it's a tremendous discovery," said Anna Contadini, an Islamic art expert at London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
Many artifacts from the era were lost when the Fatimid treasury was broken up by the Ayyubid rulers who succeeded them in the late 12th century. Only six similar rock crystal ewers are known to survive, including one in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, and another in the Louvre in Paris.
One other of the vases, part of the Pitti Palace collection in Florence, was dropped and smashed by a museum staff member in 1998. Restorers have worked without success to rebuild it.
*AP
