Plaque

This dome-shaped plaque or lid, made of pale-green jade, bears a six-petal flower on top, inlaid with gold. The area below is encrusted with red stones in raised collets and is inlaid with gold worked in tracery and leaf patterns.

The rulers of the Ottoman empire loved objects made of jade, but they preferred to embellish the surface of the precious material further with precious and semiprecious stones, setting them in silver and gold. The way the stones are set is characteristic of Ottoman work (Tokyo National Museum [year?], [page nos.?], catalogue nos. 45–51). While Mughal craftworkers set the stones in kundan style (see the description in "Non-Chinese Jades: Islamic and Mughal Works" earlier in this catalogue), Ottoman craftworkers ornamented their stones with floral-shaped collets and filled the remaining areas with gold tracery and leaves.

Such a piece could have been used as an inset within a larger object.