OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1530

A tile of identical design is published in Arthur Lane, A Guide to the Collection of Tiles, London, 1960, pl.13g). In his description of that tile, Lane writes that the design is so neatly mapped out that it suggests the use of stencils (Lane, op.cit., p.19). Venetia Porter mentions that the earliest blue-and-white tiles still in situ are found at the tomb of Sehzade Mahmud (1506-07) and the tomb of Sehzade Ahmad (1512-13), both in Bursa, and at the mosque of Çoban Mustafa Pasa in Gebze (circa 1529). Further 'Damascus' palette tiles are in the Yeni Kaplica baths in Bursa, restored by Süleyman the Magnificent's vizier, Rüstem Pasa (d. 1561). An important group is also in the Ibrahim Pasa mosque in Istanbul, built in 1550 (Venetia Porter, Islamic Tiles, London, 1995, p.104).