OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1530

A near identical tile to that offered here is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Arthur Lane, A Guide to the Collection of Tiles, London, 1960, pl.13J). In his description of that tile, Lane suggests that the design is so neatly mapped out that it suggests the use of stencils (Lane, op.cit., p.19). Venetia Porter mentions that the earliest blue-and-white tiles still in situ are found at the tomb of ehzade Mahmud (1506-07) and the tomb of ehzade Ahmed (1512-13), both in Bursa and at the mosque of Çoban Mustafa Paa in Gebze (circa 1529). Further 'Damascus' palette tiles are in the Yeni Kaplica baths in Bursa, restored by Süleyman the Magnificent's vizier, Rüstem Paa (d. 1561). An important group is also in the Ibrahim Paa mosque in Istanbul, built in 1550 (Venetia Porter, Islamic Tiles, London, 1995, p.104). For another Iznik tile of the same period, see the preceding lot.