A blue and white Iznik bowl, Turkey, circa 1510-20. Photo Sotheby's

of deep rounded form on a short foot, decorated in underglaze cobalt blue with a white background, designed with alternating cypress trees and lotus stems, the exterior with alternating rosettes and flowerheads; 8.3 by 18.1cm. diam. Lot 102. Estimate 6,000-8,000 GBP

NOTE: This inventive and dynamic design draws in most part from the 'Baba Nakkas' style of decoration recognisable from its fleshy leaves and hooked foliage. The central roundel is closely related to that found on a sherd datable to 1510-20 excavated at Iznik and another in Athens (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.54, no.43e, and Carswell 1998, p.37, fig.17). The base and exterior is very similar to another sherd of 1510-20, also excavated from Iznik (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.54, fig.43d). A more unfamiliar element in the decoration of this bowl is the briskly drawn flowering stems and the garlands elaborating the cypress trees. The former seem to presage the spirals of the Golden Horn wares of the next quarter but similar elements have already appeared in the interstices of wares in the style known as 'Master of the Knots'. A mosque lamp of circa 1510 in the Cinili Kosk includes related flower sprays in its varied decoration (ibid., p.93, fig.88). Elaborated cypress trees of a similar nature appear on a bottle, formerly in Kuwait, and thought to date to circa 1520-25 (ibid., p.164, fig.304).

Sotheby's. An Eye For Opulence- Art of the Ottoman Empire. Londres | 24 avr. 2012, 02:30 PM www.sothebys.com