OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1590

This dish bears some resemblance to one in the Ömer Koç collection, which is attributed to circa 1575 (see Hülya Bilgi, The Ömer Koç Iznik Collection, Istanbul, 2015, pp.370-71, no.160). Like ours that is a rimless dish or sahan and has a central design on a bole-red ground surrounded by a medallion formed of a frieze of small palmettes. The rosettes on the present dish were a popular motif in the third quarter of the 16^th century. Typically used as sprays or in branches, the arrangements of rosettes in a circle is found on another sahan in the Victoria & Albert Museum, dated there to the second half of the 16^th century (inv. C.2040-1910).

This dish was formerly in the Lagonico Collection - originally assembled by Stefanos Lagonikos in Alexandria, Egypt. The Lagonikos family was one of many Greek settlers to become extremely successful in the Egyptian cotton industry and Ottoman financial incentives to foreign investment. As these Greek families grew in wealth, many began collecting art with a small number collecting Islamic art, which was seen as an extension of Hellenism. The private collections of the Greek community in Alexandria would go on to form the core of the important 1925 exhibition Exposition d’art Musulman, only the second great exhibition of Islamic art, which included pieces from the Lagonico collection.