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Lot Essay
Yuan and Ming porcelains were exported to the Muslim world in some quantity for centuries and by the 15th century collections were formed in the Islamic capitals of Tabriz and Cairo. When these cities were absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in 1514 and 1517, Chinese wares made their way into the Topkapi Palace collections and from the 1520s onwards Iznik potters began directly imitating them using the great Yuan and early Ming porcelains of the 14th and 15th centuries as their inspiration.
This inspiration is clearly manifested in the elegant scrolling meandering design on this jar, which is closely based on early Ming models, particularly those of the Xuande period (1426-35, see for example R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, London, 1986, nos.600- 603, pp.512-13). As well as the design, the slightly greyish blue colour used without shading but contained within a dark outline is also drawn from Chinese blue and white porcelain. This colour appeared at on Chinese wares at times when they were forced to use local cobalt rather than imported sources - something which didn't happen during the early fifteenth century which is a period noted for the consistently rich blue of its porcelain. The decoration of this jar is thus the product of inspiration drawn from different periods of Chinese production.
Other Iznik vessels decorated with similar scrolls, lotus flowers and pointed leaves joined in a continuous meander are known. Dishes so-decorated, are found in the Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf (Islamische Keramik, exhibition catalogue, Düseldorf, 1973, nos.311 and 313, pp.216-17); in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Edwin Binney and Walter B. Denny, Turkish Treasures from the Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, Portland, Oregon, 1979, Ceramic 3, pp.206-07); the Istanbul Archeological Museum, Istanbul (Esin Atil, The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificnet, Washington D.C., 1987, p.248, no.170); the Ömer M. Koç Collection (Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 2009, no.15, pp.72-73); and the Gulbenkian Collection (Maria Queiroz Ribeiro, Iznik Pottery, Lisbon, 1996, no.26, pp.136-37). An example with very strong blue cobalt blue, and dated slightly earlier, to circa 1535, sold in these Rooms 21 June 2000, lot 48, More recently another, with colours more similar to ours, dated 1560-80, was sold on 15 October 2002, lot 370.
All of the vessels listed above however are dishes; the most extraordinary feature of ours is the form. Only two other comparables are known - a slightly earlier example with a straighter foot, dated circa 1510-15 that is in a private French collection (Frédéric Hitzel, Turkophilia Revealed, exhibition catalogue, 2011, p.36) and one of slightly stouter form and decorated in polychrome in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is loosely dated to the 16th-17th century (inv. no. 17.190.824). Although other Iznik jars are known, they are usually of a baluster form with a cylindrical neck - a number are illustrated in a miniature of a fruit seller's shop in the Bahâristân of Jami copied in Istanbul between 1595 and 1603 (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik, London, 1989, fig.9, p.44). Another miniature from the Surnâme of Murad III (circa 1582), also illustrated in Atasoy and Raby, provides evidence for a diversity in the types of jars produced by the kilns of Iznik. As well as the more standard forms that are shown on and next to the potter's wheel, there is a row of vessels behind amongst which is one jar of cylindrical form, similar to that of the familiar Iznik tankards but without a handle (Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., fig.42, p.53). This may represent a jar of our type.
It is possible that our jar was modeled after a European apothecary jar, or albarello. However it dosen't have the waisted body of a normal albarello and it seems likely that the shape here also finds its precedents in China. The form in some ways relates to Chinese 'lantern jars', early versions of which almost always have Islamic-inspired lattice decoration and were thus presumably for the export market. One of these is in the Palace Museum in Beijing which is dated to the Ming dynasty to the reign of Yongle (1403-24, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (1), Hong Kong, 2000, no.43, p.45). Another is in the Al-Sabah Collection (Giovanni Curatola, Art from the Islamic Civilization from the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, Italy, 2010, no. 199, p.215). Although there it is suggested that it was possibly made for Mamluk Egypt or Syria, it certainly seems possible and indeed likely that similar wares entered the Ottoman world, and inspired the experimental potters of Iznik.
This inspiration is clearly manifested in the elegant scrolling meandering design on this jar, which is closely based on early Ming models, particularly those of the Xuande period (1426-35, see for example R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, London, 1986, nos.600- 603, pp.512-13). As well as the design, the slightly greyish blue colour used without shading but contained within a dark outline is also drawn from Chinese blue and white porcelain. This colour appeared at on Chinese wares at times when they were forced to use local cobalt rather than imported sources - something which didn't happen during the early fifteenth century which is a period noted for the consistently rich blue of its porcelain. The decoration of this jar is thus the product of inspiration drawn from different periods of Chinese production.
Other Iznik vessels decorated with similar scrolls, lotus flowers and pointed leaves joined in a continuous meander are known. Dishes so-decorated, are found in the Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf (Islamische Keramik, exhibition catalogue, Düseldorf, 1973, nos.311 and 313, pp.216-17); in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Edwin Binney and Walter B. Denny, Turkish Treasures from the Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, Portland, Oregon, 1979, Ceramic 3, pp.206-07); the Istanbul Archeological Museum, Istanbul (Esin Atil, The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificnet, Washington D.C., 1987, p.248, no.170); the Ömer M. Koç Collection (Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 2009, no.15, pp.72-73); and the Gulbenkian Collection (Maria Queiroz Ribeiro, Iznik Pottery, Lisbon, 1996, no.26, pp.136-37). An example with very strong blue cobalt blue, and dated slightly earlier, to circa 1535, sold in these Rooms 21 June 2000, lot 48, More recently another, with colours more similar to ours, dated 1560-80, was sold on 15 October 2002, lot 370.
All of the vessels listed above however are dishes; the most extraordinary feature of ours is the form. Only two other comparables are known - a slightly earlier example with a straighter foot, dated circa 1510-15 that is in a private French collection (Frédéric Hitzel, Turkophilia Revealed, exhibition catalogue, 2011, p.36) and one of slightly stouter form and decorated in polychrome in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is loosely dated to the 16th-17th century (inv. no. 17.190.824). Although other Iznik jars are known, they are usually of a baluster form with a cylindrical neck - a number are illustrated in a miniature of a fruit seller's shop in the Bahâristân of Jami copied in Istanbul between 1595 and 1603 (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik, London, 1989, fig.9, p.44). Another miniature from the Surnâme of Murad III (circa 1582), also illustrated in Atasoy and Raby, provides evidence for a diversity in the types of jars produced by the kilns of Iznik. As well as the more standard forms that are shown on and next to the potter's wheel, there is a row of vessels behind amongst which is one jar of cylindrical form, similar to that of the familiar Iznik tankards but without a handle (Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., fig.42, p.53). This may represent a jar of our type.
It is possible that our jar was modeled after a European apothecary jar, or albarello. However it dosen't have the waisted body of a normal albarello and it seems likely that the shape here also finds its precedents in China. The form in some ways relates to Chinese 'lantern jars', early versions of which almost always have Islamic-inspired lattice decoration and were thus presumably for the export market. One of these is in the Palace Museum in Beijing which is dated to the Ming dynasty to the reign of Yongle (1403-24, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (1), Hong Kong, 2000, no.43, p.45). Another is in the Al-Sabah Collection (Giovanni Curatola, Art from the Islamic Civilization from the Al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, Italy, 2010, no. 199, p.215). Although there it is suggested that it was possibly made for Mamluk Egypt or Syria, it certainly seems possible and indeed likely that similar wares entered the Ottoman world, and inspired the experimental potters of Iznik.