What is this image depicting and what culture is it from?

This is a brass/copper tray, roughly 11" x 14", depicting what appears to be an historical event. There are monkeys (crudely done humans?) riding some kind of 4 legged animals (camels?); lower right looks like someone is being punished; lower middle people blowing horns?. Does anyone have a guess as to where this may have come from?

 

Welcome, M. Munning.
It is very difficult to discern much, but it looks like some kind of ritual with a central patriarchal figure or saint. The animals around the edge seem to be horned?

Could we see the entire tray? That could help find the cultural context of the tray, and from there we can proceed to find out more. Also close ups of details please.
Is there anything that resembles writing anywhere on the tray?

 

Except for a small part of the outer edge, this is the entire tray. I will upload a portion of the back of the tray; it shows that there are actually 2 pieces of metal pressed together.
I tried enlarging portions of the tray but my software, for some reason, doesn't allow me to do that. Anyway, you should be able to enlarge this image on a pc with good results. Thanks for looking!

 

I think that central figure is Saladin. A shot of the back of the tray might help.

 

Welcome to Antiquers M. Munning!

Love those mountains in your Avatar. Where are they?

 

Hi M, and welcome.

 

Hmm. Camels and what I think might be Nubian ibex around the edge would place it somewhere in the area of North Africa/Middle East. But somewhere not strictly Islamic enough to avoid representations of people. The headgear is interesting. Perhaps Persia or Iraq?

 

Could be Christian. My initial thought was a Coptic cult. There used to be small Coptic sects which focussed worship around one saint, maybe there still are. Copts also wear hoods, like some of the figures do.
I would need to see more detail though.

 

Perhaps Qajar, a Turkic dynasty that ruled Persia/Iran from 1794 to 1925. I have found pictures with similar head gear, and some references to at least some of them being Zoroastrians.

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/187701


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qajar_dynasty


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qajar_dynasty

 

Am I the only one who sees cats?

 

hmm... not really, need a higher resolution image.

 

Definitely need better resolution.

 

Here are 2 images of the back of this tray. One is a closeup of a corner showing what seems as excess metal around the edges being folded in around the back of the tray. The other image is the entire back, showing a reverse image of the front of the tray. Perhaps these are fabrication techniques that might give a clue to where this was made.

 

I will try to get access to a camera that has better resolution than my phone's camera!

 

That's Beartooth Mountain at Beartooth Pass, outside Red Lodge, MT; along the Beartooth highway. Glad you like it!

 

OK. Here are closeups, using my camera. The first one is a closeup of one of the 25 elk/deer/??? that surround the raised edge of the platter. It could be my poor eyesight, but each of the 25 look slightly different, as though they were embossed without using a template.