A Küthaya plate with Armenian inscription depicting Yarutiwn Pezcian, Turkey, 18th century

of shallow rounded form, decorated with underglaze cobalt blue, viridian green, turquoise and bole red, outlined in black with a central roundel enclosing a portrait of a dignitary encircled by a banner of Armenian script, the cavetto with floral sprays, the rim with alternating tulips and floral rosettes flanked by cloudbands, the reverse with further rosette and tulip motifs, inscribed 'P19' on reverse

The portrait depicted at the centre of this plate is that of one of the most celebrated personalities of the Ottoman Empire during the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

Yarutiwn Pezcian amira [Yarutiwn Poghosi amira Pezcian] nicknamed gazaz (from his trade in cloth making), was born 10 April 1771 and died 3 January 1834. He was the director of the Ottoman Royal mint during the reign of Sultan Mahmud II from 1807 to 1821. He was the benefactor of several landmark buildings in Constantinople including the Armenian Patriarchate's adjacent buildings (1823); the Church of the Mother of God (1829); the All Saviour' National Hospital (1833) and a total of seven schools (see L. Tutyucyan, Yarut'iwn Peczian and his times, Cairo, 1971).

Haykakan Hamarot Hanragiratar [Armenian abridged Encyclopedia]  vol.4, Erevan, 2003, p.192