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Lot Essay
The design of this dish very obviously follows a Chinese prototype; it was produced at a time when Chinese wares were finding their way into the Topkapi Palace Collections and which saw copies of a number of Chinese blue and white designs being produced at Iznik. Lot 10 in this sale is an equally clear example of this process. Of all the prototypes it was the grape design that proved the most popular (for a discussion of this see Atasoy, N. and Raby, J.: Iznik - The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, pp.121-124 and pls.313 and 317). Please see also lots 38 and 60 in this sale.
Many features point to this being one of the earliest of the group. As with a dish in a private London Collection (Tulips, Arabesques and Turbans, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, no.77, p.91), the central design is executed without an enclosing band. The grape stems also show small groups of suckers springing off the stem which are not to be found on later examples. Both this and the London dishes also have an early form of the 'wave and rock' border where the smaller motifs are like fish-scales rather than tight spirals. This border was on another grape dish sold in these Rooms, 26 April 1994, lot 371. It is also on one of two similar dishes in the Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul (Ara Altun, John Carswell and Gönül Öney: Turkish Tiles and Ceramics, Istanbul, 1991, nos.I.15 and I.17, p.24).
This dish could well have been one of the early imports to Europe in the 17th or even 16th century. It was discovered in the kitchen of a castle in Austria, without the owners having any idea of its origin. It seems probable that it came to Europe at the time of the Austrian sieges of Vienna and thereafter remained, its origins being forgotten with time.
Many features point to this being one of the earliest of the group. As with a dish in a private London Collection (Tulips, Arabesques and Turbans, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, no.77, p.91), the central design is executed without an enclosing band. The grape stems also show small groups of suckers springing off the stem which are not to be found on later examples. Both this and the London dishes also have an early form of the 'wave and rock' border where the smaller motifs are like fish-scales rather than tight spirals. This border was on another grape dish sold in these Rooms, 26 April 1994, lot 371. It is also on one of two similar dishes in the Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul (Ara Altun, John Carswell and Gönül Öney: Turkish Tiles and Ceramics, Istanbul, 1991, nos.I.15 and I.17, p.24).
This dish could well have been one of the early imports to Europe in the 17th or even 16th century. It was discovered in the kitchen of a castle in Austria, without the owners having any idea of its origin. It seems probable that it came to Europe at the time of the Austrian sieges of Vienna and thereafter remained, its origins being forgotten with time.