OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1575

The strong tall cypress tree which elegantly divides the design of our dish into two symmetrical halves is a feature which Julian Raby associates with the development of the bole-red glaze in the 1560s, (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik, The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, p.235). There are a few other dishes which like our own employ the cypress tree motif to emphasise the symmetry of the floral design, notably a dish in the Freer Gallery, dated to circa 1570-75, which also has very similar fleshy curved saz leaves (inv.66.25; Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., no.433, p.235). Our dish is also exceptional for the fact that it does not have an extended rim like most of the dishes from this period. The top of the cavetto has a delicate design of linked cusped half palmettes which is echoed by a slightly later rimless dish in collection of the Musée National de la Renaissance at Chateau d’Ecouen (inv. DS 2332; Frédéric Hitzel and Mireille Jacotin, Iznik. L’Aventure d’Une Collection, Paris, 2005, no.235, p.184).