Enrica Medugno
Sale Coordinator
Property of a Lady
Lot 80*
An Iznik rimless pottery 'grape dish' Turkey, circa 1570-80
12 November 2024, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £20,480 inc. premium
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Oliver White
Head of Department
An Iznik rimless pottery 'grape dish'
Turkey, circa 1570-80
Turkey, circa 1570-80
of shallow rounded form on a short foot, decorated in cobalt blue, green and black on a white ground with a central roundel containing three large bunches of grapes within spiralling tendrils issuing fleshy leaves, a band of alternating stylised palmette motifs to the cavetto, with a narrow zig-zag border, the exterior with vegetal motifs
29.1 cm. diam.
29.1 cm. diam.
Footnotes
Provenance
Private UK collection.
The design of Iznik grape dishes is derived from Chinese Yuan and Ming blue and white porcelain ware produced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Following Sultan Selim I's conquests of Tabriz in 1514, and of Damascus and Cairo in 1517, large quantities of Chinese porcelain and celadons were acquired to adorn the court rooms. As a result, Iznik potters had access to a wide spectrum of designs they had not encountered before, the grape design being one of the most frequently imitated models. Iznik potters emulated the designs of these grape dishes, but also adapted them, resulting in a wide variety of interpretations. Comparison can be made with a dish dated to circa 1530, sold in these rooms (Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 28 April 2005, lot 422), which illustrates how closely the Iznik potters copied Chinese porcelain when they first encountered it. As time passed, the potters broke away from that initial imitation and introduced new ideas resulting in distinctive and individual pieces. The present lot epitomises this, abandoning the Chinese 'breaking wave' rim and instead incorporating a band of stylised palmettes.
For further discussion, and examples of comparable rimless dishes, see Atasoy and Raby, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, pp. 121-4, cat. nos. 189-192. For two rimless Iznik grape dishes sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 24 April 2012, lot 103 & 104. For further comparable examples sold at Christie's, see Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets, 28 October 2020, lot 115 & Art of the Islamic & Indian Worlds, 7 April 2011, lot 306.