An Iznik Blue and White Pottery Dish, Ottoman Turkey, Circa 1530

An Iznik Blue and White Pottery Dish, Ottoman Turkey, Circa 1530

With sloping rim on short foot, the white interior painted in three shades of blue, with central roundel containing a table top emerging from one side, with two vases and a large jug on top, each with bouquets of carnations and tulips emerging and small cloud bands between, within a cusped arch surrounded by floral vine on blue ground, the cavetto with elaborate blue paired clouds on white ground, the rim with an alternating design of cusped panels containing flowerheads flanked by clouds on white ground and white flowers on blue ground, the exterior with swirling band of flowering vine, hole drilled in foot, repairs around rim. 13 5/8in. (34.6cm.) diam.  Estimate £30,000 - £50,000

Notes: Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby suggested the name of "The Potters' Style" for the group of wares that were developed in the 1520s, painted in a much looser style than those that had been made earlier (Iznik, the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, pp.115 and 118). The present dish is a very good example of what is probably the archetype of the group, the dish with rim and central depiction of three vases of flowers, executed in two shades of cobalt-blue coupled with turquoise. Similar examples are in the Antaki Collection in Aleppo, and in the Freer Gallery (Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., pls.166, 167 and 314).

The present dish is less symmetrical than any of the others, the base on which the flowers are resting abruptly turns down to the right hand side. It raises the question of what it is intended to be. It suggests a table, but, if so, what is the source of inspiration? The Freer Gallery dish also has a strangely lopsided base supporting the central jug of flowers, which appears to be taken from a source whose perspective has been completely misunderstood. By the time the later examples of this group were painted in the 1530s, the strange irregularity, and presumably its source, has been forgotten, the drawing is looser, and the base is just a straight panel across the base of the roundel.

Christie's. Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds 31 March 2009 . London, King Street. www.christies.com Image 2009 Christie's Ltd