OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1570

The gentle swaying movement of the flowers represented on this dish indicate the influence of more naturalistic designs favoured by Kara Memi, the chief painter at the Ottoman court in the later part of the 16th Century. He favoured floral arrangements which were often described as 'blowing in the wind' for their sense of flow and movement. For a discussion on Kara Memi and his influence on Iznik designs see Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, chapter XIX, p.222-3. A further dish with a similar flowing design, held in the Omer M. Koc collection, also shares a striking rich dark-green glaze, (Hulya Bilgi, Dance of Fire: Iznik tiles and Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanim Museum and Omer M. Koc Collections, Istanbul, 2009, fig. 54, p. 132). From around 1570 onwards this rich dark green was gradually phased out by a lighter emerald-green glaze. The first recorded use of emerald-green with bole-red dates to 1566-7 and is found on tiles on the portico of the tomb of Sultan Suleyman. A very similar dish dated to 1570-75 was sold in these Rooms, 22 April 1981, lot 331, published in Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, op.cit. fig. 398, p.227.