Lot Essay
The design of this dish is closely related to that of a dish in the David Collection, Copenhagen (Folsach, K.V.: Islamic Art -- The David Collection, Copenhagen, 1990, no.181, p.124. In the present example however the main design is continued on the rim while the David Collection example has the more typical 'wave and rock' design. A second related dish, formerly in the Adda Collection and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art encloses the same field design within a polychrome lobed border (Atasoy, N. and Raby, J.: Iznik -- the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, fig.468, p.243). Atasoy and Raby use the David Collection example as the archetype of what they refer to as the 'wheatsheaf' style due to the shape of the leaves. In the present example the leaves are closer to the original saz type than in most of the group.
The coloured slip seen on the underside of the dish is a feature that occasionally appears in Iznik pottery of this period (Sothby's Monaco: La Collection Lagonico, 7 December 1991, lots 38 and 39, in these instances a lavender-blue slip). It is possible that it represented potters trying different colours in the kiln which were also occasionally used over an entire vessel under the surface decoration. The same colour slip ground as on the base here is found covering a dish in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (Atasoy and Raby, op. cit., pl.671, pp.290-1).
The coloured slip seen on the underside of the dish is a feature that occasionally appears in Iznik pottery of this period (Sothby's Monaco: La Collection Lagonico, 7 December 1991, lots 38 and 39, in these instances a lavender-blue slip). It is possible that it represented potters trying different colours in the kiln which were also occasionally used over an entire vessel under the surface decoration. The same colour slip ground as on the base here is found covering a dish in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait (Atasoy and Raby, op. cit., pl.671, pp.290-1).