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Dish in Chinese Style
Dish
Dish in Chinese Style
Islamic; Ottoman
about 1525
Object Place: Iznik, Turkey
Medium/Technique
Fritware, blue decoration under clear glaze
Dimensions
Height x diameter: 7.5 x 39.5 cm (2 15/16 x 15 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
The John Pickering Lyman Collection—Gift of Miss Theodora Lyman
Accession Number19.1196
CollectionsAsia, Islamic Art
ClassificationsCeramics
Chinese porcelain has been a luxury in the Islamic world since the 8th century, and this particular ceramic dish, which imitates Chinese porcelain, was made around 1525 in Turkey during the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The dish is made out of fritware, an artificial clay invented in Iraq as an alternative to porcelain, and decorated with cobalt blue floral and vegetal designs. It is such a close imitation of actual Chinese porcelain of the same period that only an expert can distinguish it from a Chinese ware. The dish was likely used as a bowl due to its shape and may have been part of a larger set of dishes of similar design.
DescriptionA very deep plate with foliated rim, with decoration in two shades of blue. Beneath, inside a single foliated line,are nine floral sprays, of three unequally represented designs with a central flower and surrounding leaves. On its face the dish is decorated in three registers separated by double foliated lines. The rim bears an intricate scrolling vine with repeated flowers; the cavetto has the same nine motifs as the underside: again with four examples of two designs and one of another; while the well shows a "Hatayi" design of a of a lotus or peony scroll from which grow a variety of flowers and leaves.
ProvenanceJohn Pickering Lyman (b. 1847 - d. 1914), Boston; by 1914, by descent to his sister, Miss Theodora Lyman (d. 1919), Portsmouth, NH; 1919, gift of Miss Thoedora Lyman to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 18, 1919)