Iznik pottery
Encyclopedia
Iznik
İznik is a city in Turkey which is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Church, the Nicene Creed, and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea...
pottery, named after the town in western Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
where it was made, is highly decorated ceramics that was produced between the late 15th and 17th centuries.
İznik was already an established centre for the production of simple earthenware
Earthenware
Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects.-Types of earthenware:Although body formulations vary between countries and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15%...
pottery with a underglaze
Underglaze
Underglaze is a method of decorating ceramic articles, the decoration is applied to the surface before it is glazed. Because the glaze will subsequently cover it such decoration is completely durable, but because the subsequent glost firing is at a higher temperature than used in on-glaze...
decoration when in the last quarter of the 15th century, craftsmen in the town began producing a radically different type of ceramic that used a fritware
Fritware
Fritware, also known as Islamic stone-paste, is a type of pottery in which frit is added to clay to reduce its fusion temperature. As a result, the mixture can be fired at a lower temperature than clay alone....
body with painted designs under a colourless lead
Lead oxide
Lead oxide may refer to:* Lead oxide, PbO, litharge, massicot* Lead oxide, Pb3O4, minium, red lead* Lead dioxide , PbO2Less common lead oxides are:* Lead oxide, Pb2O3, lead sesquioxide...
glaze
Ceramic glaze
Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...
. The change was almost certainly a result of the active intervention and patronage by the recently established Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
court in Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
who greatly valued Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. The early fritware vessels were meticulously decorated using cobalt blue
Cobalt blue
Cobalt blue is a cool, slightly desaturated blue color, historically made using cobalt salts of alumina. It is used in certain ceramics and painting; the different cobalt pigment smalt, based on silica, is more often used directly in tinted transparent glasses...
. The very detailed designs combined traditional Ottoman arabesque
Arabesque (Islamic art)
The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines, often combined with other elements...
patterns with Chinese elements.
During the 16th century the decoration on the pottery gradually changed in style, becoming looser and more flowing. Other colours were introduced. Initially turquoise was combined with the blue and then the pastel shades of sage green and pale purple were added. Finally, in the middle of the century, a very characteristic bole red
Armenian bole
Armenian bole, also known as bolus armenus or bole armoniac, is an earthy clay, usually red, native to Armenia. It is red due to the presence of iron oxide; the clay also contains hydrous silicates of aluminum and possibly magnesium.-Uses:...
replaced the purple and a bright emerald green replaced the sage green. From the last quarter of the century there was a rapid deterioration in quality and although production continued during the 17th century the designs were poor.
As a result of the high value attached to Chinese porcelain by the Ottoman court, the Topkapi Palace collection includes over ten thousand pieces of Chinese ceramic but almost no İznik pottery. Most of the surviving pottery is in museums outside Turkey, but examples of İznik tiling can be seen in in the Circumcision room and the Baghdad Kiosk of the Topkapi Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
complex in Istanbul.
Overview: role of Chinese porcelain
Following the establishment of the Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in the early 14th century, Iznik pottery initially followed Seljuk Empire antecedents.
After this initial period, Iznik vessels were made in imitation of Chinese porcelain
Chinese porcelain
Chinese ceramic ware shows a continuous development since the pre-dynastic periods, and is one of the most significant forms of Chinese art. China is richly endowed with the raw materials needed for making ceramics. The first types of ceramics were made during the Palaeolithic era...
, which was highly prized by the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
sultans. As the potters were unable to make porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
, the vessels produced were fritware
Fritware
Fritware, also known as Islamic stone-paste, is a type of pottery in which frit is added to clay to reduce its fusion temperature. As a result, the mixture can be fired at a lower temperature than clay alone....
, a low-fired body comprising mainly silica and glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
.
The originality of the potters was such that their use of Chinese originals has been described as adaptation rather than imitation. Chinese ceramics had long been admired, collected and emulated in the Islamic world. This was especially so in the Ottoman court and the Safavid
Safavid dynasty
The Safavid dynasty was one of the most significant ruling dynasties of Iran. They ruled one of the greatest Persian empires since the Muslim conquest of Persia and established the Twelver school of Shi'a Islam as the official religion of their empire, marking one of the most important turning...
court in Persia which had important collections of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Such Chinese porcelains influenced the style of Safavid pottery and had a strong impact on the development of Iznik ware. By the mid-16th century, Iznik had its own vocabulary of floral and abstract motifs in tight designs making use of a limited palette. Decoration progressed from pure symmetry to subtle rhythms.
Confusion on the source of Iznik pottery
From the 19th century until the 1930s there was confusion as to the source of İznik pottery and the different styles were assumed to originate from different pottery producing centres. Although it is now clear that all the pottery was produced in İznik (or Kütahya, see below) the names associated with the different styles are still often used. Up to the 1860s all Islamic pottery was normally known as 'Persian' ware. However, between 1865 and 1872 the Musée de ClunyMusée de Cluny
The Musée de Cluny , officially known as Musée National du Moyen Âge , is a museum in Paris, France...
in Paris acquired a collection of polychrome fritware pottery with a design that included a bright 'sealing-wax red' under a clear glaze. As all the items in the collection had been obtained on the island of Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
it was erroneously assumed that the pottery had been manufactured there and the term 'Rhodian' ware was adopted for this particular style. European collectors also purchased a number of pieces decorated in blue, turquoise, sage green and pale purple. These were believed to originate from the town of Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
in Syria and became known as 'Damascus' ware. Blue and white fritware pottery became known as 'Abraham of Kütahya ware' as the decoration was similar to that on a small ewer that was once formed part of the collection of Frederick Du Cane Godman
Frederick DuCane Godman
Frederick DuCane Godman D.C.L., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.E.S., F.Z.S., M.R.I., F.R.H.S., M.B.O.U. was an English lepidopterist, entomologist and ornithologist....
and is now in the British Museum. The ewer has an inscription in Armenian script
Armenian alphabet
The Armenian alphabet is an alphabet that has been used to write the Armenian language since the year 405 or 406. It was devised by Saint Mesrop Mashtots, an Armenian linguist and ecclesiastical leader, and contained originally 36 letters. Two more letters, օ and ֆ, were added in the Middle Ages...
under the glaze on its base stating that it commemorated Abraham of Kütahya with a date of 1510. In 1905-1907, during the construction of a new post office in the Sirkeci
Sirkeci
Sirkeci is an area in the Eminönü neighborhood of the Fatih district of the city of Istanbul, Turkey. It has evolved as the place name of the area in Eminönü surrounding Sirkeci Station, the Southeastern long distance passenger train terminus in Europe for the Orient Express.The neighborhood...
district of Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
, pottery fragments were unearthed that were decorated with spiral designs on a white background. As a result, pottery with similar spiral patterns became known as 'Golden Horn
Golden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
' ware.
It was not until the 1930s that art historians fully realised that the different styles of pottery were all produced in İznik. In 1957 Arthur Lane published an influential article in which he reviewed the history of pottery production in the region and proposed a series of dates. He suggested that 'Abraham of Kütahya' ware was produced from 1590 until around 1525, 'Damascus' and 'Golden Horn' ware were produced from 1525 until 1555 and 'Rhodian' ware from around 1555 until the demise of the İznik pottery industry at the beginning of the 18th century. This chronology has been generally accepted.
İznik and Kütahya
The 'Abraham of Kütahya' ewer is not the only vessel with a possible KütahyaKütahya
Kütahya is a city in western Turkey with 212,444 inhabitants , lying on the Porsuk river, at 969 metres above sea level. It is the capital of Kütahya Province, inhabited by some 517 804 people...
origin. A fragmentary water bottle decorated in the 'Golden Horn' style has an underglaze inscription in Armenian script that refers to the vessel as an "object of Kütahya". Lane argued that it was unlikely that either the 'Abraham of Kütahya' ewer or the water bottle had been made in Kütahya. However, subsequent archaeological excavations in Kütahya unearthed fragments of pots in the blue and white İznik style that had been damaged during manufacture ('wasters') providing evidence that fritware pottery had been produced in the town. The designs, materials and manufacturing technique appear to have been similar to that used in İznik. Kütahya is further from Istanbul with less easy access to the capital and was probably only a small pottery producing centre in the 16th century. Nevertheless, it is likely that some of the pottery that is currently labelled as 'İznik' was manufactured in Kütahya. Julian Raby has written: "For the moment we have no choice but to call all Ottoman glazed pottery of the 16th and 17th centuries by the generic label 'İznik', and to hope that in time we can learn to recognise the diagnostic features of contemporary 'Kütahya ware'."
Early Iznik pottery (mid-14th century)
Following the establishment of the Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in the early 14th century, pottery developed progressively from its Seljuk Empire antecedents, Seljuq pottery
Seljuq pottery
Seljuq pottery was the pottery of the Seljuq Empire. With the end of the Seljuq Empire in the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire took over some of the traditions of the Seljuqs, especially in the early stages of İznik pottery....
. Only shards remain from that period. They consist in glazed pottery using the slip
Slip (ceramics)
A slip is a suspension in water of clay and/or other materials used in the production of ceramic ware. Deflocculant, such as sodium silicate, can be added to the slip to disperse the raw material particles...
technique.
The vessels of this early type were made of red clay at the core, and given a first firing. Embossed designs were then applied using a thick white undercoat. The plates were then dipped into a single-color glaze
Ceramic glaze
Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...
, and again fired for finishing.
Miletus ware (14-15th century)
Large quantities of pottery fragments were discovered during archaeological excavations by Friedrich Sarre at MiletusMiletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
in the early 1930s. The pottery was of a type that was then known as 'Island ware' as fragments had previously been discovered on several Aegean islands
Aegean Islands
The Aegean Islands are the group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east; the island of Crete delimits the sea to the south, those of Rhodes, Karpathos and Kasos to the southeast...
. As Miletus had a long history as a pottery producing centre, it was erroneously assumed that the pottery was produced locally and it became known as 'Miletus ware'. However subsequent excavations have shown that the pottery was not in fact produced at Miletus but at centres such as İznik, Kütahya
Kütahya
Kütahya is a city in western Turkey with 212,444 inhabitants , lying on the Porsuk river, at 969 metres above sea level. It is the capital of Kütahya Province, inhabited by some 517 804 people...
and Akçaalan. The excavations have not provided a clear date for the pottery but it is usually assumed to belong to the 14th and 15th centuries.
Miletus ware used a red clay body covered with a white slip which was painted with simple designs under an alkaline lead glaze. The designs were usually in dark cobalt blue but also sometimes in turquoise, purple and green. Evidence from excavations undertaken at Saraçhane in Istanbul suggests the Miletus ware was still being produced as late as 1520, after the introduction of the İznik 'blue and white' fritware.
Fritware
From the late 15th century, potters in İznik began producing wares that were decorated in cobalt blueCobalt blue
Cobalt blue is a cool, slightly desaturated blue color, historically made using cobalt salts of alumina. It is used in certain ceramics and painting; the different cobalt pigment smalt, based on silica, is more often used directly in tinted transparent glasses...
on a white fritware
Fritware
Fritware, also known as Islamic stone-paste, is a type of pottery in which frit is added to clay to reduce its fusion temperature. As a result, the mixture can be fired at a lower temperature than clay alone....
body under a clear glaze. Both the manufacturing technique and the underglaze
Underglaze
Underglaze is a method of decorating ceramic articles, the decoration is applied to the surface before it is glazed. Because the glaze will subsequently cover it such decoration is completely durable, but because the subsequent glost firing is at a higher temperature than used in on-glaze...
designs were very different from that used in the production of Miletus ware. Fritware had been made in the Near East
Near East
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
from the 13th century, but İznik fritware, achieving a white surface, was a major innovation.
Fritware (also called stonepaste
Islamic stone-paste
Islamic stone-paste, also called fritware and quartz frit, is a ceramic material which seems to have been first manufactured in Iraq in the 9th century...
) is a composite material made from quartz sand mixed with small amounts of finely ground glass (called frit
Frit
Frit is a ceramic composition that has been fused in a special fusing oven, quenched to form a glass, and granulated. Frits form an important part of the batches used in compounding enamels and ceramic glazes; the purpose of this pre-fusion is to render any soluble and/or toxic components insoluble...
) and some clay. When fired, the glass frit melts and binds the other components together. In the 13th century the town of Kashan
Kashan
Kashan is a city in and the capital of Kashan County, in the province of Isfahan, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 248,789, in 67,464 families....
in Iran was an important centre for the production of fritware. Abū'l-Qāsim, who came from a family of tilemakers in the city, wrote a treatise in 1301 on precious stones that included a chapter on the manufacture of fritware. His recipe specified a fritware body containing a mixture of 10 parts silica
Silicon dioxide
The chemical compound silicon dioxide, also known as silica , is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula '. It has been known for its hardness since antiquity...
to 1 part glass frit and 1 part clay. There is no equivalent treatise on the manufacture of Iznik pottery, but analysis of the surviving pieces indicates that the potters in İznik used roughly similar proportions. In Kashan the frit was prepared by mixing powdered quartz with soda
Sodium carbonate
Sodium carbonate , Na2CO3 is a sodium salt of carbonic acid. It most commonly occurs as a crystalline heptahydrate, which readily effloresces to form a white powder, the monohydrate. Sodium carbonate is domestically well-known for its everyday use as a water softener. It can be extracted from the...
which acted as a flux
Ceramic flux
A ceramic flux functions by promoting glass formation in clay bodies and glazes. Fluxes are used in glazes to lower the high melting point of silica. The most commonly used fluxes in a ceramic glaze are lead, boric, soda, potassium, lithium, calcium, magnesium, barium, zinc, and strontium...
. The mixture was then heated in a kiln. In İznik, as well as quartz and soda, lead oxide
Lead oxide
Lead oxide may refer to:* Lead oxide, PbO, litharge, massicot* Lead oxide, Pb3O4, minium, red lead* Lead dioxide , PbO2Less common lead oxides are:* Lead oxide, Pb2O3, lead sesquioxide...
was added to the frit.
As the fritware paste lacked plasticity and was difficult to work on the wheel, vessels were seldom made in one piece. Instead they were formed in separate sections that were allowed to dry and then stuck together using the fritware paste. This additive technique meant that there was a tendency for the final vessels to have slightly angular shapes. Dishes were almost certainly made using a mould attached to a potter's wheel. A lump of fritware paste would have been rolled out into a sheet much like when a cook rolls out pastry. The sheet would have been placed on the mould to form the inside of the dish. The underside of the dish would have been shaped using a template as the mould was rotated on the wheel. When the paste was partly dry the foliate rim would have been sculptured by hand.
The ceramics were coated with a thin layer of white slip. This had a similar composition to the fritware paste used for the body, but the components were more finely ground and more carefully selected to avoid iron impurities that would discolour the white surface. It is likely that an organic binder was also added such as tragacanth gum. Although in his treatise Abū'l-Qāsim recommended that fritware vessels were allowed to dry in the sun before being decorated, it is probable that Iznik ceramics was given a bisque
Bisque (pottery)
Bisque porcelain is unglazed, white ceramic ware Examples include bisque dolls.Bisque also refers to "pottery that has been fired but not yet glazed...
firing. The pottery was painted with pigments that had been mixed with glass frit and ground in a wet quern
Quern-stone
Quern-stones are stone tools for hand grinding a wide variety of materials. They were used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a handstone...
. For many designs the outlines were pounced through a stencil. Seven colors were used in various combinations (though there are many effective Iznik designs using only two, three or four colors): blue (cobalt oxide
Cobalt oxide
Cobalt oxide may refer to*Cobalt oxide - CoO*Cobalt oxide - Co2O3*Cobalt oxide - Co3O4...
), purple (manganese
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
), red (silica and iron oxide
Iron oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. All together, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides.Iron oxides and oxide-hydroxides are widespread in nature, play an important role in many geological and biological processes, and are widely utilized by humans, e.g.,...
), green (copper oxide
Copper oxide
Copper oxide is a compound from the two elements copper and oxygen.Copper oxide may refer to:*Copper oxide , a red powder;*Copper oxide , a black powder...
), turquoise, grey and black. Before 1520, Iznik ware was decorated mainly in blue. From the 1520s turquoise was added. The polychrome palette developed from 1540-1560.
The wares were glazed with a lead-alkaline-tin glaze, whose composition has been found from analysis to be lead oxide
Lead oxide
Lead oxide may refer to:* Lead oxide, PbO, litharge, massicot* Lead oxide, Pb3O4, minium, red lead* Lead dioxide , PbO2Less common lead oxides are:* Lead oxide, Pb2O3, lead sesquioxide...
25-30 percent, silica 45-55 percent, sodium oxide
Sodium oxide
Sodium oxide is a chemical compound with the formula Na2O. It is used in ceramics and glasses, though not in a raw form. Treatment with water affords sodium hydroxide....
8-14 percent and tin oxide
Tin oxide
Tin oxide may refer to:* Tin oxide , SnO* Tin dioxide , SnO2...
4-7 percent. The use of tin oxide, normally employed to render glaze opaque, is surprising, but in İznik glazes it remains in solution and is transparent.
Abū'l-Qāsim described the use of earthenware saggars
Saggar fired pottery
Saggar firing is a technique for the firing of pottery.Saggars are ceramic, boxlike containers which can be used to enclose or protect ware in kilns. Traditionally saggars were made primarily from fireclay. Saggars have been used to protect, or safeguard, ware from open flame, smoke, gases and kiln...
with a fitting lid. Although Miletus ware bowls were stacked in the kiln one on top of the other separated by spurs
Kiln spurs
Kiln spurs are supports, often in the shape of a tripod, used to maintain the shape and separate pieces of ceramic during the firing process....
, the lack of spur marks on İznik fritware suggests that saggards were used. Firing was done in an updraft kiln, to about 900°C.
Blue and white ware (late 15th - early 16th century)
In the final decades of the 15th century, potters in Iznik began producing blue-and-white fritware ceramics with designs that were heavily influenced by the Ottoman court in Istanbul. There are no surviving written documents that provide details on how this came about. The earliest specific mention of Iznik pottery is in the accounts for the Imperial kitchens of the Tokapi palace for 1489-1490 where the purchase of 97 vessels is recorded. The earliest surviving datable objects are blue-and-white border tiles that decorate the türbeTurbe
Türbe is the Turkish word for "tomb", and for the characteristic mausoleums, often relatively small, of Ottoman royalty and notables. It is related to the Arabic turba, which can also mean a mausoleum, but more often a funerary complex, or a plot in a cemetery.-Characteristics:A typical türbe...
(tomb) in Bursa of Şehzade Mahmud who died in 1506-7. He was one of the sons of Bayezid II.
Art historians have proposed that the earliest surviving Iznik fritware objects, dating from probably around 1480, are a group of vessels painted in a dark cobalt blue in which much of the dense decoration is in white on a blue background. The vessels have separate areas of Ottoman arabesque and Chinese floral designs. The combination of these two styles is sometimes referred to as Rumi-Hatayi where Rumi denotes the Ottoman arabesque patterns and Hatayi the Chinese inspired floral patterns. Julian Raby has instead proposed the term 'Baba Nakkaş' after a leading designer attached to the Imperial court in Istanbul. Many of the meticulously painted Ottoman motifs of this early period are believed to be influenced by Ottoman metalwork.
Although both the use of cobalt blue on a white background and the shape of large dishes were clearly influenced by Chinese porcelain from the Yuan
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...
and Ming
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
dynasties, the early Iznik fritware dishes were far from being slavish imitations of Chinese designs. In some pieces, such as a large carver with a foliate rim in the Çinili Koşk museum
Tiled Kiosk
The Tiled Kiosk is a pavilion set within the outer walls of Topkapı Palace and dates from 1473. It was built by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II as a pleasure palace or kiosk. It is located in the most outer parts of the palace, next to Gülhane Park...
, the decoration on the front of the dish uses only Ottoman designs.
Patronage by the Ottoman court: Süleyman the Magnificent
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
in 1453, the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
sultans started a huge building programme. In these buildings, especially those commissioned by Süleyman, his wife Hürrem (Roxelana
Roxelana
Haseki Hürrem Sultan was the wife of Süleyman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire.-Names:Sixteenth-century sources are silent as to her maiden name, but much later traditions, for example Ukrainian folk traditions first recorded in the 19th century, give it as "Anastasia" , and Polish...
) and his Grand Vizier Rustem Pasha, large quantities of tiles were used. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque
Sultan Ahmed Mosque
The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a historical mosque in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Ottoman Empire . The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior....
in Istanbul (the "Blue Mosque") alone contains 20,000 tiles. The Rüstem Pasha Mosque
Rüstem Pasha Mosque
-External links:* ** *...
is more densely tiled and tiles were used extensively in the Topkapı Palace
Topkapi Palace
The Topkapı Palace is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was the primary residence of the Ottoman Sultans for approximately 400 years of their 624-year reign....
. As a result of this demand, tiles dominated the output of the Iznik potteries.
Under Süleyman the Magnificent (1520–66), demand for İznik wares increased. Jugs, hanging lamps, cups, bowls and dishes were produced, inspired by metalwork and illuminated books as well as Chinese ceramics. Many large dishes were made with looser designs, incorporating ships, animals, trees and flowers. The dishes appear to have been made for display, as most have pierced footrings so that they can by hung up, but they have been observed also to be scratched from use. Designs in the 1520s include the saz
Saz
Saz can be a nickname for the given name Sarah, or may refer to:* Saz , a family of Iranian and Turkish stringed musical instruments* Sameh Zakout, rap artist* saz, the ISO 639-3 code for the Saurashtra language...
style in which a long, serrated saz leaf, dynamically arranged, is balanced by static rosette forms. In the later 16th century, the quatre fleurs style used a repertoire of stylised tulips, carnations, roses and hyacinths.
Golden Horn ware (1530-1550)
The so-called 'Golden Horn ware', or Tuğra style, was a variation of blue and white ceramics and was popular from the 1530s to 1550s. Golden Horn ware was so named because the first sample were excavated in the Golden HornGolden Horn
The Golden Horn is a historic inlet of the Bosphorus dividing the city of Istanbul and forming the natural harbor that has sheltered Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and other ships for thousands of...
area of Istanbul, but it was later deducted that they were manufactured at Iznik, due to the number of shards and discarded firing trials found at Iznik. This type of decoration consists in series of thin concentric spirals adorned with small leaves. This design was inspired from calligraphy, and especially the Tuğra imperial signatures such as that of Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I was the tenth and longest-reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1520 to his death in 1566. He is known in the West as Suleiman the Magnificent and in the East, as "The Lawgiver" , for his complete reconstruction of the Ottoman legal system...
, the design has recently been more accurately named as the 'Tugrakes spiral style'. For it is derived from the illuminated spiral scroll used on royal documents as a background design for the Sultan’s tughra, or imperial monogram. In particular, it relates very closely to that on a document dating from the reign of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Here, therefore, we have a ceramic design which directly reflects the taste of the imperial court.
Damascus ware
The so-called 'Damascus ware' was popular under Suleiman the Magnificent from 1540 to 1550. They use for the first time green and purple, in addition to cobalt blueCobalt blue
Cobalt blue is a cool, slightly desaturated blue color, historically made using cobalt salts of alumina. It is used in certain ceramics and painting; the different cobalt pigment smalt, based on silica, is more often used directly in tinted transparent glasses...
and turquoise
Turquoise
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl648·4. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue...
, and form a transition towards full-fledged polychrome ceramics. There were again mistakenly labeled "Damascus" after some were found in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, but were later understood to be derived from Iznik.
Polychrome ceramics
Polychrome ceramics form the longest and most successful period of Iznik ware. They were made from the mid-16th century to the end of the 17th century.Late period
The decline of Iznik pottery has been linked with the decline in Ottoman power and with the Sultans' imposition of fixed prices in a period of inflation. The reduction in imperial demand inevitably affected the Iznik economy and by the mid-17th century only twenty kilns remained and knowledge had been lost. The design of later Iznik wares is generally regarded as weak.Fritware is still produced at Kütahya
Kütahya
Kütahya is a city in western Turkey with 212,444 inhabitants , lying on the Porsuk river, at 969 metres above sea level. It is the capital of Kütahya Province, inhabited by some 517 804 people...
, about 200 km south of Istanbul, principally for the tourist trade and in imitation of Iznik ware.