Help getting info on my Persian or Arabian tray/table

Hello everyone,

I am new here and have started the journey to find out as much information about this Tray that I inherited. It is a rather long story. My step grandpa worked for Aramco in Saudi Arabia 1960s-80s and he brought this back to the states with him when he retired. Though he lived in Saudi Arabia, he traveled all over the world. He would tell me stories about what the tray scene was but after 30 years, I can't remember the details.

After my grandpa and grandma passed away, my mother got possession of the tray and she thought it would be a "great" idea to spray paint it with gold glitter, then gold spray paint and added what looked to be glow in the dark nail polish. Seeing the condition of the tray broke my heart. After my mom passed away two years ago, I inherited it and have been working on stripping all of the spray paint/nail polish off. So much more detail appeared. It seems to be copper plated over tin (or another silver metal....I am metal clueless).

I would love to know what language it is and maybe what the pictures mean? I know that there is not much monetary value to the tray but it means the world to me. Restoring it has helped me through the grief process (lost both parents 2 months apart). Now that I have got 90% of the paint off, I have had the desire to find out as much as I possibly can about it.

I am having issues uploading, so I added the photos to a Google doc. Here

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KdKjnyOYnF_2WreLec4s4FcJ_IYystBuTtJCjX-UGw4/edit?usp=drivesdk

Thank you all in advance

 

we need pics...........
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/posting-a-thread-and-uploading-pictures.15990/

 

Thank you! Here are three of them. I did upload significantly more on the Google document if you want to see more at a higher resolution.

 

Go back to edit and click Full Image All.

 

I think I got it, thank you Sorry, still trying to figure out the forum.

 

Here are a few more that show the detail and the actual metal and where the copper plaiting is worn off. I also added what it looked like when it was spray painted and the different steps of stripping the paint off.

 

It is copper with a tin coating.

 

I can’t help with your tray, but will read with great interest what others have to say about it... I am sorry for your losses. I think that the tray is beautiful and an interesting part of your family story!

 

This is beauty -and as @Hollyblue says, tinned copper. Very nice indeed!

 

Wish we had some Arabic readers here. It looks like a story or parable of the person in the center of the upper and lower etch. They appear to be the same person.

 

The people look like they are dressed as Persians or Mughals rather than Arabs. I'm not sure about the language difference, if any.

 

My friend contacted her friend that speaks Arabic and she thought it was Persian. She thought it was something from the Koran but realized they had faces and I guess that they won't use images of faces when speaking about it? I am not sure.

My friend that speaks Farsi thinks it is Arabic (same letters but different language). I do have my grandpas passports, so I can look to see what countries he has gone to. They are totally filled up.

 

I also think Persian. Quality is much better than we usually see so think this has some good age to it.... likely antique or nearly so. In general, when we see script like this, it is usually archaic in form and relates to religious proclamations. Most modern Arabic readers can not interpret much of it.

I do question this since there are people depicted on this. As noted, Islamic religious art does not depict the human form. Persian art seems to depict people more than most other cultures from the region so they may be an exception. I am really getting out of my league on this so hate to draw any conclusions in this regard. Hopefully, someone with better expertise will come along.

 

Thank you everyone! I really am enjoying learning or hearing ideas about this tray if mystery!


Looking at his passport, just one of the three had 27 passport pages filled (he had two of those extendable pages totally covered, front and back). He traveled all over the world. I was hoping to pinpoint where he may have purchased it but with him traveling so much, it probably won't help.