OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1535-40

Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby suggested the name of ‘The Potters’ Style’ for the group of wares that were developed in the 1520s, painted in a much looser style than those that pre-date them (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik. The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, pp.115 and 118). This dish belongs to a group produced in Iznik around 1535-40. Atasoy and Raby note that vessels of this type might have been made both at the finest level, but also on smaller scale and with simpler decoration that would have appealed to a broader customer base (Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., p.142). Similar examples to ours, but on grander scale include a deep dish in the Victoria & Albert Museum which has a very similar use of colour, and a prominence of tulips in its decorative repertoire (inv.no.185-1892; Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., no.321). The back of our dish, which has a scrolling flowering vine within a finely drawn cusped border is very similar to a dish of the same period in the Sadberk Hanim Museum (SHM 12304-P.508; Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire. Iznik Tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Ömer M. Koç Collections, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 2009, no.9).