IZNIK POLYCHROME FOOTED BOWL AND COVER DECORATED WITH SAZ LEAVES AND RUMI SPROUTS

Fritware, the body of rounded form set on a pedestal foot, dome-shaped cover with a bud-form finial set on the top, underglaze painted in cobalt blue, relief red, green and outlined in black with saz leaves and rumi sprouts, a band of key-fret patterning at junction between bowl and cover.

The saz leaf seen on our footed bowl, is an important motif frequently used by the artists employed in the Ottoman court studio. The first representative of the saz style at the Ottoman palace was Şahkulu, an artist brought from Tabriz by Sultan Selim I (r. 1512-1520). This style was a departure from the classical miniature painting, characterised by pictures drawn with a brush in black ink, featuring long pointed leaves, giving birth to the term ‘saz leaf’. Paintings in the saz style may remind a thick forest with intertwined curved leaves and khatai blossoms. In fact, the word saz, used to mean ‘forest’ in the Dede Korkut stories that date back to the 10th or 11th century. For further information please see, Motif from the Sadberk Hanım Museum Collection (written by Turgut Saner, Şebnem Eryavuz and Hülya Bilgi), Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul, 2020, p. 106.

The present bowl with cover belongs to a small group of Izniks and there are only a few recorded comparable examples. An Iznik bowl and cover in similar form is in the British Museum (Museum number: FBIs-5), London. Please see: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/ object/W_FBIs-5

A second closely related example is in the Louvre Museum (Inv. No. 7880/101-2), Paris. Please see, Julian Raby & Nurhan Atasoy, Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, Alexandria Press, London, 1989, p. 339, pl 742. Lastly, a comparable Iznik footed bowl and cover in similar form is in the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul. Please see, Hülya Bilgi, Ateşin Oyunu – Sadberk Hanım MüzesiveÖmerKoçKoleksiyonlarındanİznikÇini ve Seramikleri, Vehbi Koç Vakfı, İstanbul, 2009, pp. 398-399.

Provenance: Ex-Private French Collection

Ottoman Empire

Second half of the 16th Century

Height: 22.5 cm.