OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1575-80

This dish is a particularly fine example of a rare group of Iznik, characterised by decoration in trailed white slip with additional details painted under the glaze in cobalt-blue. In his discussion on a similarly decorated jug in the Al-Sabah collection, Oliver Watson writes that the group suggests a clientele with a very different aesthetic from the usual brightly-coloured and highly patterned wares (Oliver Watson, Ceramics from Islamic Lands, London, 2004). Julian Raby and Nurhan Atasoy connect the group with the “wheatsheaf” style (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik, London, 1989, p.240). Our dish demonstrates a visible link between the two groups in the central rosette, which is closely related to those often found on “wheatsheaf” dishes. See for example a dish in the David Collection, attributed to circa 1575, which has a very similar rosette to its centre (inv.no.27/1978; Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., p.241, no.447). As well as the central rosette, our dish has elements of the slip decoration discreetly picked out in blue. The clusters of small blue dots highlight rosettes within the decoration. A jug in the Ashmolean Collection, attributed to 1575-80, shares precisely this feature (Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., p.459, no.456). The slip painting here is far finer than is usually encountered. For a contemporaneous polychrome slip painted vessel, please see lot 144 in the current sale.

The following seven lots come from the collection of Victor Adda (1885-1965). Adda was born in Alexandria and travelled frequently between Egypt and Europe throughout his life. The son of Abram Adda, a successful cotton trader, Victor took over the family business before leaving Egypt in the 1950s. Although perhaps best known as a collector of antiquities - notably coins - he also assembled a fine collection of Iznik pottery. Throughout his collecting life he was known for his scholarship and innate aesthetic appreciation, seeking only the best examples of the most perfect craftsmanship. Another group of Iznik from the Adda Collection sold in these Rooms, 28 October 2021, lots 68-74.