Lot 152. A large blue and white Iznik pottery border tile, Ottoman Turkey, circa 1540-1545. Estimate £8,000 – £12,000 ($11,376 - $17,064). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016

The rectangular tile with one bevelled edge, the white ground painted in cobalt-blue and turquoise, the main register with a stencilled rosette bordered by palmettes and linked through scrolling vine and issuing curling saz leaves, all reserved against cobalt-blue ground, the edge with a similar but smaller scale design in cobalt-blue on turquoise ground, each register with blue and white minor borders, intact; 4 7/8 x 19 3/8in. (12.4 x 49.2cm.)

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired in 1980's

Note: A tile of the same design to that offered here is in the Ömer M. Koç collection (Hülya Bilgi, Iznik. Ömer Koç Collection, 2015, Istanbul, no.46, pp.164-65). In many ways the aesthetic relates to a group of hexagonal tiles usually dated to 1540-1545 (see for example Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik. The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, nos.225, 228 and 231, pp.134-35). Executed in a similar colour palette these tiles combine lotus and floral motifs withsaz and prunus blossoms, and like ours all incorporate stencilled motifs. 

Christie's. ART OF THE ISLAMIC & INDIAN WORLDS, 21 April 2016, London, King Street