A rare Iznik blue and white tazza, Turkey, circa 1580

Ex-collection of Baron Alexandre Paternotte de La Vaillée (1923-2014), His Majesty King Baudouin’s (r.1951-93) ambassador

By repute from his father Baron Alexandre Paternotte de La Vaillée (1888-1966)

Thence by descent until acquired by the present owner

This sixteenth-century dish, executed in cobalt blue, was produced at the celebrated kilns of Iznik in western Anatolia. The decoration comprises stylised lotus petals, motifs of Chinese origin, reconfigured into a radiating sunburst pattern. This tazza exemplifies the transmission and transformation of visual languages across Asia, reflecting the sustained artistic exchange between Chinese and Anatolian ceramic traditions. Such influences, which reached their zenith in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, remained a vital source of inspiration for Ottoman potters in the sixteenth century. A significant portion of this material survives today in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, which preserves one of the world’s most important collections of Chinese celadon and blue-and-white wares. These highly valued imports provided a model of refinement and technical excellence that Iznik potters sought to emulate, often with remarkable fidelity.

An illuminated folio, drawn from a manuscript of Siyar-i Nabi (The Life of the Prophet) by Mustafa Darir of Erzurum (1594-95), (Harvard Art Museums, acc. no.1995.824) depicts the Prophet Muhammad partaking in a feast with his companions during military campaigns by the port city of Yanbu, in present-day Saudi Arabia. Central to the composition is the artist’s use of blue-and-white ceramic vessels, which, alongside gilded tableware, serve to reframe and situate the historical event of 623 AD within the aesthetic and material culture of the late sixteenth century.

Alongside Chinese porcelain, the Ottomans also imported Persian textiles and Venetian glass, and Iznik workshops absorbed and reinterpreted these diverse influences into distinctive local idioms. Within this context, the production of tazzas may be understood as reflecting European Renaissance dining culture while simultaneously drawing upon Chinese decorative traditions, both of which were reconfigured to suit Ottoman aesthetic preferences and ceremonial practices.

A dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. no.1991.172), displays a very similar design to that of the the bowl of our tazza. Similarly, a footed bowl in the same collection (acc. no.29.33) exhibits decorations on the rim of the bowl and on the foot that correspond closely to the present motifs.

A similar blue and white tazza was sold in Christie’s London, October 2018, lot 256, and another sold in these rooms, 8 October 2008, lot 270.