OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1580

Identical tiles are located in the domed ante-room to the Has Oda (Privy Chamber) of Murad III (1578-9) at the Topkapi Saray Palace (Rogers, J.M. (ed.): The Topkapi Saray Museum, Architecture, Boston, 1988, p.32, figs. 62-64). Numerous tiles from this design are in public and private collections. A composite panel from the Theodor Sehmer Collection is offered as lot 238 in this sale. A large panel is in the Gulbenkian Collection (Calouste Gulbenkian Musée Catalogue, Lisbon, 1982, no.119, p.191). A single tile from the same series is in a private collection in Bonn (Petsopoulos, Yanni., (ed), Tulips, Arabesques & Turbans, exhibition catalogue, London, 1982, p.95, fig.103). Similar tiles are to be found in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Louvre, the Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, and the Kustgewerbe Museum in Cologne amongst others.