A rare Iznik blue and white 'Golden Horn' jug, Turkey, circa 1530-40. Photo Sotheby's

the body of bulbous form with a large cylindrical neck, decorated in an underglaze cobalt blue and light turquoise against a white ground with interlacing foliate scrolls and keyfret bands, interspersed with arabesque motifs; 19cm. Lot 112. Estimate 250,000-350,000 GBP. 

EXHIBITED: Couleurs d'Orient, Brussels, 2010
Turkophilia, Paris, 2011

LITTERATURE: Brussels 2010, p.105
Paris 2011, p.44

NOTE: This is both a substantial and rare example of Iznik pottery of the 'Golden Horn', or 'Tugrakes', style. 

The group of wares known as 'Golden Horn' take their name from a group of sherds discovered on the waterways southern shores in the early twentieth century, during excavations for a new Post Office in Sirkeci (Carswell 1998, p.50). Others are said to be have been found near Aksaray (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.108). The association is, of course, misleading and the pieces in this group are clearly the work of the potters of Iznik and Kutahya. One of the most famous pieces of the group is the Godman flask in the British Museum (ibid., p.46). The fame of this piece is in part due to its bearing an inscription with historical information on its base. Unusual enough in itself, the inscription also includes a rare documentary dating for a piece of Iznik, in this case 1529 A.D., giving a relatively secure dating for the Golden Horn wares. The group displays a form of decoration, predominantly a series of floral concentric spirals, which neither evolve from an Iznik antecedent nor leave a significant legacy in that tradition. Rather, the inspiration seems to come from contemporary illumination, in particular Imperial illumination of a type found on the background of the sultan's tughras (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.109, fig.131). This source would indicate the influence of the innermost workings of the Imperial chancery and legitimate the assertion of sultanic patronage for Iznik of this period.

This jug is an unusually large example of this form. The decoration is composed of typical spirals composed of stylised floral elements, paired leaves and scrolls. The elaborate palmettes and grid forms superimposed on this are also characteristic of this group and are very similar to those found on a magnificent bottle in the British Museum and a tile in the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin-Dahlem (ibid., p.112, fig.147, and p.111, fig.143). A jug of similar form
though smaller and, to judge from the decoration, later in the period, is in the David Collection (von Folsach 2001, p.185, no.255).

The style seems to have had some subsequent impact in Italy where imitations were manufactured in Liguria in the second half of the sixteenth century (ibid., p.267, fig.589

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