A rare red-ground Iznik pottery dish, Ottoman Turkey, circa 1585-90

3 août 2017

A rare red-ground Iznik pottery dish, Ottoman Turkey, circa 1585-90

Lot 176. A rare red-ground Iznik pottery dish, Ottoman Turkey, circa 1585-90, 13½in. (34.3cm.) diam. Estimate £50,000 - GBP 70,000. Price realised GBP 242,500. © Christie's Image Ltd 2015

With sloping rim on short foot, the white ground painted in bole-red, cobalt-blue, green and black, the centre with a radial design of curvedsaz leaves issuing rosettes, carnations and a large cusped palmette all reserved against a strong bole-red ground and surrounded by stylised cloudbands, the cavetto with small palmettes, the rim with cartouches containing paired flowerheads on blue ground, the exterior with alternating pairs of tulips and rosettes flanked above and below by three concentric rings in cobalt-blue, one clean repaired break.

Provenance: Édouard Aynard (1837-1913), Sold MM. Mannheim and M. Henri Léman, Gallerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2 December, 1913, lot 117
Collection Charles Gillet and thence by descent to the present owner

Literature: Jean-Baptiste Giraud, Recueil descriptif et raisonné des principaux objets d'art ayant figuré à l'Exposition rétrospective de Lyon 1877, Lyon, 1877

Exhibited: Retrospective de Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 1877 and 1894

Note: The last quarter of the 16th century saw the perfection of the use of the raised bole-red colour that we see employed so masterfully on this dish. The thick red was difficult to control and initial efforts produced mixed results. The tiles produced in around 1561 for the Mosque of Rüstem Pasha contained areas of red which were not fully controlled after firing and therefore lost the intensity of their colour, (Walter Denny, The Mosque of Rüstem Pasha and the Environment of Change, New York, 1977). The beauty of our dish comes as a result of the perfected ability to control the contours of the bole-red to produce a precise and masterfully drawn floral design.

A dish in the Musée National de la Céramique in Sèvres which has a very similar design composed of fleshy curved saz leaves weaving in and out of palmettes and large rosettes is also dated by Walter Denny to circa 1585-90, (Walter B. Denny, Iznik. The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics, London, 2004, p.118). The control of the design on our dish is further complemented by the strong full bodied red colour achieved in the glaze. Later attempts with bole-red would produce a glaze of a duller rust colour which does not match the intensity of our dish. Few dishes with bole-red grounds were produced. One with a similar floral design set on a striking red ground dated to the same period was sold in these Rooms, 26 April 2012, lot 268.

Christie's. Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 23 April 2015, London