AN IZNIK ‘CINILI HAMAM’ HEXAGONAL BLUE AND WHITE POTTERY TILE
OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1530-40
£6,300
Auction: Islamic Art | Lots 1 to 66 | 12 June at 10am
Description
the white ground decorated in underglaze cobalt blue and turquoise, with a design of radiating arabesques and flowerheads around a central rosette
Dimensions
23cmx 27cm (9in x 10 5/8in)
Provenance
Acquired from Momtaz Islamic Art, London, in the early 1990s.
Private UK Collection.
Footnote
Note:
For an identical tile in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see accession no. 1020-1892, noted as having come from the Cinili Hamam (tiled Bath-house) in the Zeyrek district of Istanbul.
The Cinili Hamam was built by one of the greatest architects of the Ottoman Empire under Suleyman the Magnificent, Mimar Sinan (c.1488-1588). He was instructed to build the Hamam by Barbaros Hayreddin Pasha, commonly known as ‘Barbarossa’, the Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy. Named after its exquisite blue-turquoise tiles, Cinili means tiled in Turkish.