A rare Iznik pottery dish with lion design, Turkey, second half 16th century. 

of deep rounded form, decorated in underglaze cobalt blue, viridian green and relief red, outlined in black, with a lion surrounded by tulips and hyacinth flowers, the rim with circular and spiral motifs, the reverse with alternating floral motif.

A large, deep bowl depicting an advancing lion and rimmed with a breaking wave pattern, is in the Gulbenkian Museum (inv. no.853) published in Ribeiro 1996, pp.248-9, no.88. A dish showing lions with round eyes and lobed snouts in the style of the Sotheby’s piece is in the Musée National de la Renaissance, published in Hitzel and Jacotin 2005, p.282, no.417. Two tankards with similar lions appear in Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.257, nos.543 and 545, in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, respectively.