SIGNED SAMSON, FRANCE, CIRCA 1880

Inspired by visits to newly-opened museums like the Musée de Céramique a Sèvres, early nineteenth-century French ceramicists experimented with designs from Islamic pottery. The factory of Edmé Samson (1810-91) became particularly associated with the reproduction of ceramics in museums and private collections (S. Vernoit, Occidentalism, Oxford, 1997, p. 213). Though the present lot is quite an original design, it is inspired by the cintamani motifs on early Iznik ware (for a dish painted with these motifs, see Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik: the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, fig.319). A Samson candlestick with a almost identical pattern was sold at Sotheby’s, 27 October 2020, lot 516.