OTTOMAN TURKEY, LATE 16TH CENTURY

The decoration of our dish and in particular the rim, with its alternating tulips and rosettes, makes it part of a group which has been dated to 1565-90 (Hülya Bilgi, Iznik: The Ömer Koc Collection, Istanbul, 2015, p.195). A closely related dish in the Ömer Koc collection dated 1585-90 shared similar rim decoration which, like our dish, is repeated on the underside (op. cit., cat.114, p.290). What makes our dish unusual is the use of blue-grey paint to decorate flowers. Atasoy and Raby point to its rare usage, highlighting a group employing solely grey decoration against a white ground which they date to 1540-75 (Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik, The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989 p.59). A dish with a similar decorative scheme employing similarly blue-grey coloured flowers was sold in these Rooms on 06 October 2009, lot 170.