OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1530-35

The design on this fine dish owes its origins to early 15th century Chinese blue and white flower scroll dishes, where the central design consists of five flowers on curling stems. The elegant small leaves that issue from the stems here, each with darker extremities, can also be found on a deep dish with foliate rim in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (inv.no.859, published Atasoy and Raby, 1989, no.338). Although it lacks the turquoise accents of our dish that were becoming more common in this period, the Gulbenkian dish is otherwise very similar and has a design contained within a roundel with a central flowerhead from which issues an elegant scrolling vine sprouting further similar flowerheads and delicate leaves. There is a very similar sense of movement and drawing. The Gulbenkian dish is dated to circa 1530-35.

The rimless form found here is sometimes referred to as a sahan, a term found in archive documents to designate something topped with a metal cover (Atasoy and Raby, 1989, p.44).