A pair of calligraphic wood roundels with the names of the Caliphs 'Ali and 'Uthman, Turkey, first half 19th century

The practice of decorating interior spaces with sets of calligraphic roundels is seen as early as the sixteenth century with ceramic roundels produced in Iznik within the interiors of the mosque of Rustem Pasha (1561) and the Suleymaniye mosque (1550-57). Iznik production declined in the seventeenth century, but the position of these roundel inscriptions within interiors nonetheless remained prominent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Examples are found in a variety of media, most commonly carved and painted wood. See, for example, a set in the Khalili collection, (inv. no.MXD 265A-D, Rogers 1995, pp.26-27, no.1) and a set of four sold in these rooms, 25 April 2012, lot 458. A set executed in ceramic was sold in these rooms, 9 October 2013, lot 43.