Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets
Property from a European private collection
A monumental Iznik pottery dish with grape vines, Turkey, circa 1530
Auction Closed
October 27, 03:41 PM GMT
Estimate
250,000 - 350,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
decorated in underglaze blue and turquoise with a central design of three bunches of grapes, the cavetto with twelve floral sprays, the rim with a breaking wave design, the reverse also with twelve floral sprays and concentric rings along foot, with bracketed rim
44.5cm. diam.
Private collection, Europe, since 1970s.
Ex-private collection, Greece.
Ex-private collection, Greece.
This exceptionally fine example of early sixteenth-century Iznik is based on a Ming design from the beginning of the fifteenth century, which it also imitates in its monumental size. Measuring 44.5cm in diameter, it is the largest recorded Iznik dish with a grape design. The only other known examples of Iznik pottery of this size are the earliest Baba Nakkaş ware chargers which are roughly forty-five or forty-six centimeters (the same size as the dishes from the Yuan dynasty).
Chinese blue and white wares were imported into the Ottoman Empire even before the Mehmed II’s conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and their influence can be observed on tiles produced for the Muradiye mosque (c.1436) which clearly demonstrate fourteenth and fifteenth-century Chinese motifs. Today, the Topkapi palace still houses over ten thousand Chinese works of art, including late Sung, Yuan and Ming dynasty porcelains, although this number would have originally been much more; see for instance, R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Museum Istanbul, vol.II, London, 1986, specifically nos.605 and 606. North-Western Persia was another confluence for trade from China and the Ardebil shrine holds eleven Ming 'grape' dishes, see J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, 1981, pl.37 and 38. Another, in the British Museum, London, inv. no.1968,0422.27, is illustrated in J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl.3:36, where the author mentions that this grape dish pattern became the most influential design model for Iznik potters making blue and white wares in the 1530s and 1540s.
The present dish is slightly larger than the British Museum Ming example, but also features a bracketed rim and a variety of floral motifs in the cavetto, probably stylised versions of those seen on the Ming example, which includes six lingzhi sprays alternating with six different flowers: camellia, chrysanthemum, gardenia, hibiscus or azalea, lotus and peony. Another comparable example from the Ming dynasty, circa 1420, with an inscription on the side of the foot and another along the base of the foot reading Shah Jahan ibn Jahangir Shah 16 (regnal year) 1053 AH (1643-4 AD), also shows the appreciation amongst a multitude of courts for this design, including the Safavid and Mughal courts (sold at Sotheby’s, New York, Important Chinese Works of Art, 17-18 March 2015, lot 264).
The potters at Iznik may have had first-hand knowledge of the Chinese porcelains at court, but more likely, they were sent drawings or pounced studies by draughtsmen working in a kitabkhana. The fact that the grape motif is reversed compared with the Chinese model underscores the likelihood that a transfer was used. The strong colours offset by a brilliant white ground are a measure of the technical and artistic mastery achieved by the Iznik potters at this time. The design of the rim, with its carefully drawn fine wavy lines interrupted by thicker wave motifs is akin to two dishes illustrated in N. Atasoy and J. Raby, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, nos.312 and 313, one of which is in the Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Murseum fur islamische Kunst, Berlin, inv. no.4201 (40.2cm. diam.) and the Homeizi collection Kuwait, inv. no.I/683 (40.5cm. diam.), both of which are attributed to circa 1525-30. See also H. Bilgi, Dance of Fire: Iznik tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections, Istanbul, 2009, p.77, no.16, for another variant of this style.
It is important to note that the overall shape, size and design are no mere pastiches of the Ming prototypes, but demonstrate the international language of appreciation and trade, particularly for these fine grape motifs. Furthermore, a new colour, and one that does not feature in the Ming prototypes, is the vivid turquoise, which is introduced into the palette. This lively synthesis of decorative elements from different periods and sources, matched by technical innovations such as an increasing range of colours fired under the glaze, is indicative of the bold experimentation found in early Iznik ware, of which this is an outstanding example.
Chinese blue and white wares were imported into the Ottoman Empire even before the Mehmed II’s conquest of Constantinople in 1453, and their influence can be observed on tiles produced for the Muradiye mosque (c.1436) which clearly demonstrate fourteenth and fifteenth-century Chinese motifs. Today, the Topkapi palace still houses over ten thousand Chinese works of art, including late Sung, Yuan and Ming dynasty porcelains, although this number would have originally been much more; see for instance, R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Museum Istanbul, vol.II, London, 1986, specifically nos.605 and 606. North-Western Persia was another confluence for trade from China and the Ardebil shrine holds eleven Ming 'grape' dishes, see J.A. Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, London, 1981, pl.37 and 38. Another, in the British Museum, London, inv. no.1968,0422.27, is illustrated in J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl.3:36, where the author mentions that this grape dish pattern became the most influential design model for Iznik potters making blue and white wares in the 1530s and 1540s.
The present dish is slightly larger than the British Museum Ming example, but also features a bracketed rim and a variety of floral motifs in the cavetto, probably stylised versions of those seen on the Ming example, which includes six lingzhi sprays alternating with six different flowers: camellia, chrysanthemum, gardenia, hibiscus or azalea, lotus and peony. Another comparable example from the Ming dynasty, circa 1420, with an inscription on the side of the foot and another along the base of the foot reading Shah Jahan ibn Jahangir Shah 16 (regnal year) 1053 AH (1643-4 AD), also shows the appreciation amongst a multitude of courts for this design, including the Safavid and Mughal courts (sold at Sotheby’s, New York, Important Chinese Works of Art, 17-18 March 2015, lot 264).
The potters at Iznik may have had first-hand knowledge of the Chinese porcelains at court, but more likely, they were sent drawings or pounced studies by draughtsmen working in a kitabkhana. The fact that the grape motif is reversed compared with the Chinese model underscores the likelihood that a transfer was used. The strong colours offset by a brilliant white ground are a measure of the technical and artistic mastery achieved by the Iznik potters at this time. The design of the rim, with its carefully drawn fine wavy lines interrupted by thicker wave motifs is akin to two dishes illustrated in N. Atasoy and J. Raby, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, nos.312 and 313, one of which is in the Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Murseum fur islamische Kunst, Berlin, inv. no.4201 (40.2cm. diam.) and the Homeizi collection Kuwait, inv. no.I/683 (40.5cm. diam.), both of which are attributed to circa 1525-30. See also H. Bilgi, Dance of Fire: Iznik tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections, Istanbul, 2009, p.77, no.16, for another variant of this style.
It is important to note that the overall shape, size and design are no mere pastiches of the Ming prototypes, but demonstrate the international language of appreciation and trade, particularly for these fine grape motifs. Furthermore, a new colour, and one that does not feature in the Ming prototypes, is the vivid turquoise, which is introduced into the palette. This lively synthesis of decorative elements from different periods and sources, matched by technical innovations such as an increasing range of colours fired under the glaze, is indicative of the bold experimentation found in early Iznik ware, of which this is an outstanding example.