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Lot Essay
This Iznik dish belongs to a group of vessels produced in the second half of the 16th century that were decorated with real and fantastic animals. For a discussion on the representation of animals on Iznik vessels, together with suggestions on its links with Balkan metalwork and its imagery as the garden of paradise see Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik. The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, p.256 and M. Wenzel, 'Early Ottoman silver and Iznik pottery design', Apollo, vol.CXXX, no.331, September 1989.
Although most animal vessels date from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the type is known as far back as the 1530s. Finds at Iznik have included blue and white fragments from animal vessels and a similar piece in the form of a sculpted animal's head (O. Aslanapa et al, The Iznik Tile Excavations, Second Round, Istanbul, 1989, pp.115, 119 and 149). Later examples, like this one, tend to be on a green or turquoise ground. However our dish does have a few unusual features. One is the combination of the animal motif with the elegant cusped rim. The other is the inclusion of what appears to be a leopard in the decorative repertoire. Atasoy and Raby mention 'dogs, deer, rabbits and ducks, scratching monkeys, lions and horned snakes, simurghs and confronted harpies' as amongst the menagerie of animals that decorated Iznik vessels but not leopards (Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., p.258). One other dish which features both a leopard, but also a black cusped line around the rim, giving the impression of a cusped rim is in the Musée national de la Renaissance, also attributed to 1580 (published Frédéric Hitzel and Mireille Jacotin, Iznik. L’aventure d’une Collection, Paris, 2005, no.414, pp.278-9). A dish with a similar treatment of the cavetto sold in these Rooms, 1 April 2021, lot 93 and more recently, 27 October 2022, lot 125. A wonderful tankard, similarly decorated, was sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2011, lot 319.
Although most animal vessels date from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the type is known as far back as the 1530s. Finds at Iznik have included blue and white fragments from animal vessels and a similar piece in the form of a sculpted animal's head (O. Aslanapa et al, The Iznik Tile Excavations, Second Round, Istanbul, 1989, pp.115, 119 and 149). Later examples, like this one, tend to be on a green or turquoise ground. However our dish does have a few unusual features. One is the combination of the animal motif with the elegant cusped rim. The other is the inclusion of what appears to be a leopard in the decorative repertoire. Atasoy and Raby mention 'dogs, deer, rabbits and ducks, scratching monkeys, lions and horned snakes, simurghs and confronted harpies' as amongst the menagerie of animals that decorated Iznik vessels but not leopards (Atasoy and Raby, op.cit., p.258). One other dish which features both a leopard, but also a black cusped line around the rim, giving the impression of a cusped rim is in the Musée national de la Renaissance, also attributed to 1580 (published Frédéric Hitzel and Mireille Jacotin, Iznik. L’aventure d’une Collection, Paris, 2005, no.414, pp.278-9). A dish with a similar treatment of the cavetto sold in these Rooms, 1 April 2021, lot 93 and more recently, 27 October 2022, lot 125. A wonderful tankard, similarly decorated, was sold in these Rooms, 6 October 2011, lot 319.