Ottoman Terra

Lemnia Jug

17th-18th century Ottoman Turkey

Unglazed ceramic with monochrome decoration

15cm high, 11cm diameter

Provenance: Dutch private collection

This unglazed earthenware jug of cream colour body is burnished and painted in monochrome brown. The shape of the jug, with its thick and slightly flaring neck, bulbous body and elegantly curved handle, is very similar to that of the Iznik jugs, yet it is much smaller than a standard Iznik jug. More interestingly, at the neck, inside the jug, there is a delicately carved filter in the shape of a blossoming flower. The painted decoration on the body is divided into four registers, where the top two registers contain poetry verses, and the lower two registers have flower and leaf motifs. This type of jug is generally known as water filter jug and they are believed to have originated in the Sasanian Empire, but were widespread throughout the Middle Eastern regions, including Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Iran, by the second half of the eighth century. Porous water jugs were designed to keep water cool by means of evaporation. The filters, which kept out insects, were generally perforated with a variety of designs made up of ornamental, calligraphic, figurative and animal motifs.

Due to the delicate nature of the extremely thin wall of the jug, very few examples of this type have survived. One example of similar size in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (EAX.1787), has fine, carved decorations throughout the body. There are some painted examples in the British Museum (1878,1230.353; 1878,1230.355; 1878,1230.356). It should be noted that filter fragments, especially from Fatimid Egypt, are not uncommon.

Inscribed with two separate but rhyming verses.

The upper verse: مدنفا

‘May your soul be nourished by clay, Sir!’

The lower verse:

‘O my Brigand King, who murders his lover!’

The lower verse is from a quatrain attributed to the musician and poet Buhûrîzâde Mustafa Itrî (d. 1712).

Iznik Border Tile 16th century Ottoman Turkey

Ceramic decorated with underglaze polychrome 15cm high, 31cm wide

Provenance: Belgian private collection

This underglaze fritware tile is painted in colours on a white slip. The decorative scheme consists of a cobalt blue background, on top of which are compositions of saz leaves, a central flower, as well as half of a lozenge shaped cartouche at each end of the tile. The white saz leaves are embellished on top with red flowers and turquoise leaves, while the cartouches are outlined in red and painted in turquoise blue, embellished with īslīmī compositions in white and red. This tile would have been a part of tile revetment used for decorating bathhouses or palaces in the Ottoman empire. Using tile revetment to decorate buildings became fashionable in the mid-sixteenth century for Ottoman elites. For example, the Ottoman admiral Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa (better known as Barbarossa) commissioned the Çinili Hamam (the Tiled Bathhouse) and employed the famous court architect Sinan (d.1588) to design the bathhouse, and also possibly the royal workshop for the tile patterns. The intricate designs of tile patterns were made to emulate manuscript paintings, meant to be seen from a close distance. Originated from fourteenth-fifteenth century Iran, the īslīmī pattern used for this tile is one of the oldest decorative schemes for manuscript illuminations.

Our tile is identical to a group of tiles (AD6015.1) in the Musée du Louvre, as well as a single tile (426-1900) at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

An Iznik Tile

16th Century Ottoman Turkey

Ceramic with underglazed polychrome 26cm high, 22.5cm wide

Provenance: French private collection

This rare tile of grey fritware is painted in colours on a white slip and covered with a clear glaze. Painted in red, blue and green, outlined in olive-green, with an ogee-shaped compartment bordered by serrated leaves and enclosing sprays of carnations, hyacinths and other flowers. In the four corners there are sections of the same decorative device.

Two tiles with the exact design are in the V&A Collection (4051900 and 405A-1900). Tiles of a similar design are in the Louvre (AD 8368/1 -2) and the Pergamon Museum, Berlin (1877,512 a, 1877,512 b, 1877,512 c).