Lot 155. A rimless Iznik pottery dish, Ottoman Turkey, circa 1590; 11 7/8in. (30.2cm.) diam. Estimate GBP 10,000 - GBP 15,000 (USD 12,830 - USD 19,245). Price realised GBP 9,375 (USD 12,028). © Christie's Images Ltd 2017.

The white ground painted under the glaze in bole-red, cobalt-blue, green and black, the exterior with alternating blue roundels and foliate motifs, old exhibition label on the underside, repaired breaks. 

Provenance: With Dikran Kelekian, Paris

Literature: Die Ausstellung von Meisterwerken Muhammedanischer Kunst in München 1910, exhibition catalogue, London, 1985 reprint, no.1475

Exhibited: Die Ausstellung von Meisterwerken Muhammedanischer Kunst, Munich, 1910, no.1475

Note: Dikran Garabed Kelekian (1868–1951), by whom this dish was lent to the 1910 Munich exhibition, was born to Armenian parents in Kayseri, when it was an important city of the Ottoman Empire. He opened a gallery in Istanbul in 1892 and showed "Persian" works at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. He and his brother Kevork went on to establish galleries in Paris, London, Cairo, and New York where they sold Middle Eastern art and attracted the major collectors of their time. 

A dish with similar fish scale design divided between green and blue is in the Ömer M. Koç collection (Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire. Iznik Tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 2009, p.295). Like ours the Koç dish combines this feature with a cavetto decorated with repeating lappets. It is dated to circa 1580-90. 

Christie's. Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets, 27 April 2017, London, King Street