HEXAGONAL TILE WITH BLUE AND WHITE DECORATION
of hexagonal form, with decoration painted in cobalt blue and turquoise on a white background under a colourless glaze, mixing fleurons, composite flowers and bifid palmettes. The half-barrel with saz decoration mixing jagged leaves, composite flowers and flowery branches. Restorations and traces of staples.
Maximum width: 24 cm
The motif of this hexagonal tile is associated with the Circumcision Pavilion in Topkapi (Sunnet Odasi). Although built in the 17th century, the pavilion is decorated with 16th-century Iznik tiles. Their production seems to have taken place between 1520 and 1550, with subtle variations in glaze from period to period.
Numerous examples are held in private and public collections: the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, 1982, no. 122, p. 191), the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University (1960.102 and 1985.322), the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (CIRC.32-1953, 507-1900 and 507A-1900), The British Museum, London (OA+.623), the Louvre, Paris (OA 7456/27) and the Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul (Laure Soustiel, Splendeurs de la céramique ottomane, Paris, 1999, no. 14, p. 66).
Provenance: Collection Philippe Magloire
