TURKEY OR SYRIA, 16TH CENTURY

Three tiles of the same group as the green ones offered here were sold at Sotheby's, London, 3 October 2012, lot 251. They bear some relation to the tiles of Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman empire – before Edirne and Istanbul. In the Yesil Jami (1419-20) and the Yesil Türbe (1424), green glazed hexagonal tiles, often decorated with gilt highlights, were used along with those done in the cuerda seca technique. One does however also find mid-16th century green-glazed black-painted tiles attributed to Ottoman Aleppo or possibly Jerusalem (Arthur Milner, Damascus Tiles, New York, 2015, fig.6.125, p.299). Although the design of those is very different to those offered here, the aesthetic is similar.