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Lot Essay
Ottoman craftsmen were skilled in the techniques of applying gold mounts set with gems to hardstones, and there are numerous fine examples of jade, rock crystal and even of zinc in the Topkapi Palace collections and elsewhere. They were so popular in the second half of the 16th Century that the same technique was applied to Chinese porcelains, which were imported to the Imperial Court in large quantities throughout the 16th century.
The payroll registers of the Ehl-i Hiref, the Community of the Talented, or artisans guilds show a large group of men engaged in metalworking and jewellery, with separate societies for those engaged in gemstone carving and gold inlaying. The earliest register of 1526 shows ninety artists alone engaged in goldworking, of whom fifty-eight were goldsmiths, nine were gemstone carvers and twenty-two gold-inlayers. Clearly, this was an important activity.
The present example lacks nine of the stones and their mounts. This loss provides an interesting insight into the technique of mounting porcelain. The body of the dish is drilled with circular holes to receive the gilded collets and with surprisingly deep grooves for the wires. This piece was originally decorated with a cold gilded design of flowers, traces of which can still be seen under the mounts.
Most of the mounted Chinese porcelains were Yuan and Ming blue-and-white wares, although white wares and celadons are also known. There is a small group of these brownish-red glazed bowls with blue decoration to the interior, dating from the Jiajing period and mounted in similar fashion in the Topkapi Palace collection, dating from the second half of the 16th Century. (Ayers, J. ed.:Chinese ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, cat. no.s 1895,1896, 1897, p. 879
(Atil,E: The age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, Washington, 1987, pp. 26, 29, 113-146)
The payroll registers of the Ehl-i Hiref, the Community of the Talented, or artisans guilds show a large group of men engaged in metalworking and jewellery, with separate societies for those engaged in gemstone carving and gold inlaying. The earliest register of 1526 shows ninety artists alone engaged in goldworking, of whom fifty-eight were goldsmiths, nine were gemstone carvers and twenty-two gold-inlayers. Clearly, this was an important activity.
The present example lacks nine of the stones and their mounts. This loss provides an interesting insight into the technique of mounting porcelain. The body of the dish is drilled with circular holes to receive the gilded collets and with surprisingly deep grooves for the wires. This piece was originally decorated with a cold gilded design of flowers, traces of which can still be seen under the mounts.
Most of the mounted Chinese porcelains were Yuan and Ming blue-and-white wares, although white wares and celadons are also known. There is a small group of these brownish-red glazed bowls with blue decoration to the interior, dating from the Jiajing period and mounted in similar fashion in the Topkapi Palace collection, dating from the second half of the 16th Century. (Ayers, J. ed.:Chinese ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, cat. no.s 1895,1896, 1897, p. 879
(Atil,E: The age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, Washington, 1987, pp. 26, 29, 113-146)