Dish

• Accession Number:AKM737
• Place:Turkey, Iznik
• Dimensions:6.2 cm × 29.8 cm
• Date:late 17th century
• Materials and Technique:Fritware, underglazed and painted

This unusual dish dates to a time when, according to Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi (1611–82), more than 300 workshops were producing tiles and ceramic wares in the town of Iznik. [1] The production of high-quality ceramics in the Ottoman Empire would begin to decline over the next half century, as the demand for cheaply produced commercial wares continued to grow. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Ottoman ceramics were widely imitated in Europe, and Kutahya replaced Iznik as a manufacturing centre. [2] 
 
A two-storied pavilion surrounded by a garden with cypress trees, tulips, hyacinths, and other flowers dominates the decorative scheme of this dish. A censer, glowing with light, hangs from the central arch of the pavilion and candlesticks stand in its other rooms. Interlocking blue and green triangles containing white ovals and blossoms decorate the dish’s rim.  
 
The architectural features of this dish have few precedents in international collections. The British Museum holds one example with a more muted colour scheme and, most remarkably, a Greek inscription and date (25 May 1666) on its rim. [3] The second dish with a Greek inscription and a date (May 1666) is now in the Benaki Museum, Athens. [4] Together, these two examples offer a glimpse into the production of Iznik wares for Greek communities. The Sadberk Hanım Museum in Istanbul holds two additional dishes with architectural imagery. Although the meaning of the architectural imagery on these latter dishes is unclear, the cypress trees suggest a funerary or even paradisal reference, which may indicate an Islamic context. [5] 
 
- Filiz Çakır Phillip 
 
Notes 
1. John Carswell references Evliya Çelebi’s travelogue Seyahatname (Book of Travels) in Iznik Pottery (London: British Museum Press, 1998), 86. 
 
2. See Hülya Bilgi, Dance of Fire: Iznik tiles and ceramics in the Sadberk Hanım Museum and Omer M. Koç collections (Istanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation, 2009), 32. 
 
3. The British Museum, Acc. No. 1887.0211.3. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1887-0211-3. See also Walter B. Denny’s Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman Ceramics (London: Thames and Hudson, 2004), 202. 
 
4. See Jean Soustiel, with the collaboration of Charles Kiefer, La céramique islamique (Fribourg: Office du livre, 1985), 343. Another example can be found with a single-story pavilion, in the Erasmus Barlow Collection, London. See Nurhan Atasoy and Julian Raby, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey (London: Alexandria Press, 1989), no. 658.  
 
5. See Bilgi, 432–3. 
 
 
References 
Atasoy, Nurhan and Julian Raby. Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey. London: Alexandria Press, 1989. ISBN:9781856690546 
 
Bilgi, Hülya. Dance of Fire: Iznik tiles and ceramics in the Sadberk Hanım Museum and Omer M. Koç collections. Istanbul: Vehbi Koç Foundation, 2009. OCLC: 854719226  
 
Carswell, John. Iznik Pottery. London: British Museum Press, 1998. ISBN:9780714124414 
 
Denny, Walter B. Iznik: The Artistry of Ottoman ceramics. London: Thames & Hudson, 2004. ISBN:9780500517888 
 
Soustiel, Jean, with the collaboration of Charles Kiefer. La céramique islamique. Fribourg: Office du livre, 1985. ISBN:9782719102138