Lot Essay
This most unusual dish has a number of features of considerable interest. Whether it answers more questions than it raises is another matter. The design is taken from a combination of two or more Chinese dishes from the late Yuan and early Ming periods. The central floral spray is a simplification of a well-known design (Krahl, R.: Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, London, 1986, vol.II, no.604). The placing of this design within a cusped surround and the surrounding scrolling hatayi lotus scrolls are from an earlier prototype (Krahl: op.cit, nos.589 and 590). The cavetto design shows one of the very few instances in the early development of Iznik pottery of the depiction of animals. The border is a simplification of a tile design repeat. In its sketchiness it is very similar to the execution of arabesque designs on a jar in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Atasoy, N. and Raby, J.: Iznik -- The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, no.126). The tightly cusped rim is also an unusual feature for which the only parallel is a dish of the Abraham of Kutahya group (The Anatolian Civilisations, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 1983, no.E.31, p.124).
It is however the reverse which is the strangest part of all. The decoration around the underside is a series of circles. Only an incomplete cover excavated at Iznik (Alanapa, O. et.al.: The Iznik Tile Kiln Excavations, Istanbul, 1989, p.176) and a fragmentary deep dish formerly in the Nadir Collection (Atasoy and Raby: op.cit., pl.48) have the same arrangement, but with differing motifs in the circles. In these two pieces the circles are also, as here, divided by arabesques, although somewhat less sketchily drawn than in the present piece. To cap it all, the underside of the foot here is glazed plain cobalt-blue. While a number of instances are known where the underside of a bowl is covered with an unrelated slip colour, no previously published bowl uses a coloured glaze on the underside.
The glaze surface and colouring are typical of Iznik between 1510 and 1540. The drawing and quirky features can mostly be compared with pieces dateable to the 1520s and 1530s. No wonder, looking at this dish, that Atasoy and Raby called this period 'A Period of Experimentation" (op.cit., p.101).
It is however the reverse which is the strangest part of all. The decoration around the underside is a series of circles. Only an incomplete cover excavated at Iznik (Alanapa, O. et.al.: The Iznik Tile Kiln Excavations, Istanbul, 1989, p.176) and a fragmentary deep dish formerly in the Nadir Collection (Atasoy and Raby: op.cit., pl.48) have the same arrangement, but with differing motifs in the circles. In these two pieces the circles are also, as here, divided by arabesques, although somewhat less sketchily drawn than in the present piece. To cap it all, the underside of the foot here is glazed plain cobalt-blue. While a number of instances are known where the underside of a bowl is covered with an unrelated slip colour, no previously published bowl uses a coloured glaze on the underside.
The glaze surface and colouring are typical of Iznik between 1510 and 1540. The drawing and quirky features can mostly be compared with pieces dateable to the 1520s and 1530s. No wonder, looking at this dish, that Atasoy and Raby called this period 'A Period of Experimentation" (op.cit., p.101).