Pot Metal Tray with Copper Wash - Where From?

Hello Board Friends - This metal tray is 10" long, 7 1/4" across and about 1 1/8" tall. I think it's probably Middle Eastern or North African but I'm just not sure. I think the metal is some kind of tin alloy and the top was given a copper wash. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Don

 

Hello 'lazy summer' Don, it is Persian (Iranian) My guess is 19th century.
These are usually copper with a rather sloppy tin wash, instead of the other way around.

 

Hi Any Jewelry! Thank you very much. Tin wash over copper - who would have guessed! I can't have a lazy summer today. Finally have a decent day that's not too hot. I plan on working in my garden. Poor thing has been neglected lately.
Don

 

Enjoy the gardening.

Here is my Persian copper wall plate. Not the best picture, but you can see how sloppy the tinwash is. There is some wear, but most of it is just sloppy. Probably intentional, if you think how much work and artistry went into making the decoration.

 

It's beautiful and there is a lot of work in the decoration. This actually came along with the Wilcox candle holder I listed earlier. I wanted both pieces so it worked out just fine. Does the deer (I'm assuming it's a deer) hold special significance in the Persian culture? It seems to be a recurring theme in the pieces I see.
Don

 

I think these are supposed to look "old" and that sloppiness is deliberate. Or something like that.

 

agreed. and furthermore the better ones are silverwash.

 

The sloppy plating could have been done to suggest age. Persia was the major tourist destination in the Middle East in the 19th century. So these could be antique souvenirs, although you also see this antique tinned copperware a lot in Iranian houses as well.

In the 19th century there was a shortage of silver and gold in Persia. Copperware was often made by people whose fathers had been silversmiths, and they had grown up in that tradition. A plate of the quality of mine would have been made in silver in the early 18th century, but there simply wasn't enough silver at the time. So they turned to copper, often tinplated.
There has always been an abundance of copper in Persia, which is why it was once the main and best source of turquoise.

 

"In the 19th century there was a shortage of silver and gold in Persia." for once I have to disagree. the rich simply hid it in better places.

 

Silver hidden by the rich doesn't appear in 18th and 19th century Persian mining data.
I seem to remember there was a steady decrease of silver manufacture and export from ca mid 18th century onward, and a total export ban at some stage. During that period they turned to copper to make items previously made in silver.

 

that may well be due to all the civil wars they had. OR they started silver-wash on copper because they couldn't afford pure silver anymore ?