Hexagonal Tile with Floral Design

Hexagonal Tile

Although earthenware ceramics were being made in Iznik as early as the second half of the fourteenth century, it was not until about one hundred years later that this center began producing pottery with a composite body. A ware with blue decoration on a white ground was the earliest composite-bodied type produced here and this tile belongs to the group.

The jewel-like quality of the colors of the geometricized floral design may be attributed partially to the fact that a thin wash of the white body material was applied over the raw body as a painting surface for the bicolored decoration—a technical feature common to all wares made in this center.

This tile belongs to the same series as those on the facade of the Sunnet Odasi or Circumcision Room in the Topkapi Palace, which can be dated to around 1535.

Marilyn Jenkins in [Berlin 1981]

H. O. Havemeyer Collection, New York (by 1930–40; gifted to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ceramic Art of the Near East," May 12–June 23, 1931.

Berlin. Museum für Islamische Kunst, Pergamonmuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. "The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the M.M.A.," June 15, 1981–August 8, 1981, no. 107.

The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Flowers and Leaves: The Ottoman Pottery of Iznik," September 25, 1991–November 15, 1992, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection," March 27–June 20, 1993, not in catalog.

Dimand, Maurice S. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 12–June 28, 1931." In Ceramic Art of the Near East. New York, 1931. no. 188.

Grube, Ernst J. "The Ottoman Empire." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 26, no. 5 (January 1968). no. 18, pp. 204–5, ill. (b/w).

"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 107, pp. 254–55, ill. (b/w).