Name of Object:

Tankard

Location:

Stockholm, Sweden

Holding Museum:

Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities (Medelhavsmuseet)

About Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities (Medelhavsmuseet), Stockholm

Current Owner:

National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm. In order to reorganise the expanding collections, the main part of the Islamic collection has been on permanent loan to the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities since 1982

Date of Object:

Hegira 13th century / AD 19th century

Museum Inventory Number:

NM 0052/1899

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Ceramic; underglaze painted.

Dimensions:

Height 21 cm, diameter of rim 10.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Probably Ottoman

Provenance:

Probably Turkey.

Description:

The tankard has a cylindrical body with a flat base and an angular handle. This characteristic shape found in a large number of mostly Iznik products attributed to the second half of the AH 10th / AD 16th century seems to be based on a leather or wooden original. The vessel is underglaze painted in two gradations of blue, diluted turquoise and opaque red on a white background. The decoration of the exterior shows a composition of elements used on Iznik ceramics and tiles throughout the AH 10th–11th / AD 16th–17th centuries: large oval medallions filled with rosettes alternate with shrubs of flowers in two rows. The edges of spirals reflect Chinese influence. The origin of this abstract pattern was the 'waves and rock' motif, which was very common on the rims of Iznik plates. The tankard is marked on the foot with a crescent and an asterisk.

Tankard with a cylindrical body and an angular handle. This shape, characteristic of many mainly Iznik products, seems to be derived from a leather or wooden original. Its underglaze painted decoration consists of medallions filled with rosettes and flowering shrubs in two rows.

How date and origin were established:

Unlike Iznik wares of the 10th–11th / 16th–17th centuries, this tankard is marked under the foot. The object was dated according to similar marks, which are known from Ottoman ceramics of the 13th / 19th century, for example, from Istanbul.

How Object was obtained:

Purchased from the collection of F. R. Martin in 1898.

How provenance was established:

A vase housed in the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities also shows an imitation of Iznik pattern and a mark which is signed 'Istanbul' within a crescent. However, it was not possible to identify the workshop to which the mark of a crescent and asterisk on the bottom belongs.

Selected bibliography:

Atasoy, N. and Raby, J., Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989.
Carswell, J., Iznik Pottery, London, 1998.
Lane, A., Later Islamic Pottery, London, 1971.
Müller-Wiener, M., Türkisch-Osmanische Keramik, Traunstein, 2004.

Citation of this web page:

Friederike Voigt "Tankard" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01;28;en

Prepared by: Friederike VoigtFriederike Voigt

Friederike Voigt has an MA in Iranian studies, history of art and social science and is currently working on her doctoral thesis on wall tiles in architectural decoration of Qajar Iran. Since 2004 she has been a project-related curator at the Museum for Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm for Museum With No Frontiers. She studied at Humboldt University in Berlin, at the University of Tehran and archaeology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. She taught Persian language at several universities in Germany. She was an assistant curator at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Cultures at the Museum of Ethnology, State Museums of Berlin. Her main fields of interest are the material culture of Iran, especially of the Qajar period, and contemporary Iranian art.
Copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: SE 30