OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA AH 912/1506-07 AD

Direct dating evidence for the phase of Baba Nakkaş ware to which this border tile belongs is given by others of the same group that decorate the tomb of Bayezid’s son Şehzade Mahmud in Bursa where an inscription over the doorway is clearly dated to AH 912/1506-07 AD (published Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik. The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, pp.90-1, nos.81-2).

The use of cartouches as seen on our tile is a distinctive decorative device of the ‘Baba Nakkaş’ style. As on our tile, the cartouches are usually painted in reserve against a blue ground. Julian Raby writes that these were probably intended to be gilded, as was the large lamp from Selim’s tomb (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, op. cit. fig.306). Another distinctive feature of the tiles are the knot motif, combined with rumi leaves and palmettes, reserved in white on a blue ground.

Very few tiles of this rare design are known. A small number are however in museum collections. See for example a group in the Al-Sabah collection (M. Jenkins, Islamic Art in the Kuwait National Museum, The al-Sabah Collection, London, 1983, p.116), two in the Ömer M. Koç collection (Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire, Istanbul, 2009, pp.50-52, nos.5 and 6) and one in the David Collection (inv.93a/2003). Another is published by John Carswell, Iznik Pottery, London, 1998, p.38, ill.18.