OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1575

Details

AN IZNIK POTTERY TILE
OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1575
The octagonal tile with white ground painted under the glaze in bole-red, cobalt-blue, turquoise and black, a central turquoise medallion issuing four cusped oval turquoise palmettes, each within a bole-red border and filled with white arabesques, the palmettes alternated with four blue rosettes linked by scrolling tendrils, cut down to the current octagonal form, the reverse with a black Armenian inscription and a tulip motif
10 x 10in. (25.5 x 25.5cm.)

Provenance

"Art D'Orient: collection du Prince Naguib Abd Allah et provenant d'une demeure parisienne des Tuileries", Artcurial, Paris, 12 December 2002, lot 32 (illustrated in catalogue)
Weksler Collection, USA, until 2020

Sale room notice

Please note that the reverse of the tile has a black Armenian inscription and tulip motif which were likely done at a similar time to the creation of the tile

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Tiles of this design were used to decorate the interior of the tomb of Sultan Selim II in the Hagia Sophia complex. The tomb was built by the architect Sinan and completed 1574-75 AD (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik, The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, pl.411, p.232).

This tile bears an inscription on the reverse in Armenian which likely dates to the point of the creation of the tiles or shortly afterwards, and is provides very rare evidence of the presence of Armenian craftsmen at Iznik in the 1560s and 1570s.

A square tile of the same design but with green medallions was sold in these Rooms, 10 October 2013, lot 148.

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