An Iznik polychrome pottery tankard, Turkey, circa 1575-80 - Sotheby's

of tall cylindrical form with applied with a square-form handle with projecting corners and elongated mounts, decorated in underglaze red, cobalt blue, green and black outline with a bold design of tulips rising on fields of fish-scale pattern, a frieze of interlocking keyfret design around the rim and base, the handle with cursive scrolls and hatching; 20.8cm. height. Estimation: 50,000 - 70,000 GBP

PROVENANCE: Andrew Lynn, Esq., sold in these rooms, 9 July 1974, lot 3
Sold Sotheby’s, New York, 21 May 1981, lot 212
Anonymous sale in these rooms, 13 April 1988, lot 343

NOTE: The tankard form, or hanap, was derived from a European form typically constructed in leather or carved from wood.The decoration may also have been derived from another medium since it has been noted elsewhere that the overall ‘textural covering’ of the surface is highly reminiscent of the engraved or repousse decoration of metalwork (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.342). The fish-scale or imbricated ground had appeared on Iznik pottery in the 1520s and in its earliest form includes a section of white at the base of each scale. By the reign of Murad III (1574-95), the white area was trailed along the outer edge of the scale and a decorative scheme of fields of green and blue scales separated variously by tulips, cloud scrolls and saz leaves produced some of the most striking and successful Iznik objects of the period now held in the collections of the British Museum, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Musée National de la Céramique, Sèvres (ibid., p.260 and nos.733, 743, 745, 732 and Denny 2004, p.63, respectively).

Sotheby's. Arts of the Islamic World. London | 24 avr. 2013 www.sothebys.com