Name of Object:

Plate

Location:

London, England, United Kingdom

Holding Museum:

The British Museum

About The British Museum, London

Date of Object:

About hegira 956 / AD 1550

Museum Inventory Number:

1878.12-30.530

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Stone-paste ceramic with blue, turquoise and olive-green painting under the glaze.

Dimensions:

Diameter 39.4 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

Iznik, Turkey.

Description:

A stone-paste ceramic plate painted with blue, turquoise and olive-green underglaze. Covering the centre of the plate is a vibrant design of so-called saz leaves, fantastical flowers and a pair of tulips. Around the rim is a more ordered arrangement comprising clusters of green leaves alternating with bunches of white and blue flowers. The tulips grow from a leafy tuft at one edge of the bowl, while the other flowers encircle them. Plates produced at Iznik often display plants springing from one edge, providing a vertical orientation for the design. This plate is a fine example of the ‘saz’, or ‘Damascus’ style that became popular in the AH mid-10th / AD mid-16th century.
This plate exemplifies a type of ceramic produced during the 930s to 50s / 1530s to 50s, known collectively as one of the ‘Damascus’ group, as it was once thought to originate there. It has since been proven that the Damascus variety originated from Iznik designs, characterised in particular by the introduction of certain colours – olive-green, black and manganese purple – and the appearance of the so-called saz leaf and fantastical flowers.

Tulips and fantastical flowers are depicted ‘growing’ from one edge of this ceramic plate, while saz leaves float around the bowl in a graceful arrangement. Ceramics of this type of design and palette were produced in Iznik although they were once considered products of the city of Damascus.

How date and origin were established:

A mosque lamp in the British Museum dated 955 (1549) provides the key to both the dating of this plate and all other vessels employing a similar colour scheme and using such motifs as the cloud scroll. Another fixed point is a group of tiles both in the Yeni Kaplica hammam (baths) in Bursa dated 959–60 (1552–3) and in the Ibrahim Pasha Mosque in Istanbul, built in 956 (1550). These tiles have the same colours and decorative motifs as the 'Damascus' group of ceramic objects, such as this plate.

How Object was obtained:

Henderson Bequest to the British Museum of 1878.

How provenance was established:

Iznik in Turkey was the main centre of production for underglaze painted ceramics of this style and colour, and using this technique during the Ottoman period.

Selected bibliography:

Atasoy, N., and Raby, J., Iznik: The Pottery of Ottoman Turkey, London, 1989, cat. no. 249.

Carswell, J., Iznik Pottery, London, 1998, pp.63–8, fig. 38.

Citation of this web page:

Emily Shovelton "Plate" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus01;41;en

Prepared by: Emily ShoveltonEmily Shovelton

Emily Shovelton is a historian of Islamic art. She studied history of art at Edinburgh University before completing an MA in Islamic and Indian art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Since graduating she has worked on a number of projects at the British Museum. Other recent work includes editing and writing for a digital database of architectural photographs at the British Library. She is currently working on a Ph.D. on “Sultanate Painting in 15th-century India and its relationship to Persian, Mamluk and Indian Painting”, to be completed at SOAS in 2006. A paper on Sultanate painting given at the Conference of European Association of South Asian Archaeologists, held in the British Museum in July 2005, is due to be published next year.
Copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: UK1 57