A rare early 19^th century Ottoman Turkish (Egyptian) silver tray, circa 1830 Tughra of Mahmud II (1808-39)

Of circular form with a shaped embossed edge of trailing acorns, the field centre with flat chased decoration of a stylised rosette, with outer borders of stylised acanthus leaves. Marked to the field tughra excluding figure 90 (used 1808-34), no assay scrape, also marked with a partially obscured Kesf mark.

Diameter – 24.8 cm / 9.75 inxches

Weight – 282 grams / 9.07 ozt

On this Kesf mark please see Kurkman, G. (1996), Ottoman Silver Marks, Istanbul: Mathusalem, p.56. “[t]he word kesf in the first line, which literally means examination of survey, here indicates like sah, that the object has been examined. The numeral 45 refers to the year 1245 AH, and the Arabic letter nin represents the month of Ramazan. Where the silver bearing this mark was manufactured is uncertain, but five objects bearing this mark which I have come across in the course of my research are known to have come from Egypt. This strongly suggests that this rare stamp was struck in the outlying provinces of the empire, and probably in Arabic speaking areas.”