A large Iznik pottery rimless grape Dish, Turkey, circa 1570. Photo Bonhams

with curving sides on short foot, the white interior decorated in two shades of cobalt-blue and green with a central roundel formed of three rings and containing three large bunches of grapes within spiralling tendrils issuing fleshy leaves, scrolling vines and leaves in the cavetto, in a narrow border of small blue and green zig-zag, the exterior with six elaborate green and cobalt floral sprays between blue bands, three further blue bands around the base, potter's design to reverse ; 34 cm. diam. Estimate: £25,000 - 35,000, € 30,000 - 42,000

Provenance: Property of a Gentleman.

The sketch to the underneath of the present plate is of particular note. There are a small group of pieces of Iznik decorated with animals and mythical pieces which date to the early 16th century (see Eva Baer, Sphinxes and Harpies in Medieval Islamic Art,1965 for a further discussion of this group.

There are only three recorded Iznik dishes with harpie design on them, one in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (Atasoy, Nurhan and Julian Raby,Iznik - the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, fig. 547); another is illustrated in Rene Grandjean, Ceramique Orientale, c. 1920, Paris, pl. 34; and a further example was sold at Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World, 6th October, 2010, Lot 348.

Bonhams. Islamic and Indian Art, 24 Apr 2012. London, New Bond Street www.bonhams.com