AN IZNIK POTTERY TILE FRAGMENT
OTTOMAN TURKEY, CIRCA 1570
Estimate: £1,000 - £2,000
Auction: 11 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
of irregular rectangular form, decorated in two shades of cobalt blue, turquoise, green and bole red on a white ground, with large stylised part-palamettes, flowerheads and saz leaves, verso with an old written note in French secured down with red seal wax at each corner
Dimensions
24.7cm x 11.6cm
Provenance
Baron Leon van der Elst (Belgian, 1865-1933).
Count Frederick van der Steen de Jehay (Belgian, 1858-1916).
Henriette de Jourda de Vaux (Belgian, 1865-1946).
Marie-Noelle Kelly (Belgian, 1901-1999); thence by descent.
Footnote
It is unclear exactly which building this tile may have been used in, but it is unmistakably a product of peak-period Iznik in the second half of the 16th century. Close comparison can be made with a panel in the British Museum (see V. Porter, Islamic Tiles, 1995, p.104, no. 97) as well as the tympanums from the Piyale Pasha Mosque, now in the Musée du Louvre (see Makariou, 2012, pp. 347-9, fig. 219). A closely related tile was sold at Christies, Arts of the Islamic & Indian Worlds, 21 April 2016, lot 171.