Iznik Plate Turkey, ca. The sale was a huge success, with 100 percent of the lots finding new homes. Each of the four best pieces are discussed in this report. Iznik, the brilliant porcelain-like pottery of Ottoman Turkey, was first produced in the late 15th century, but manufacture continued for almost two hundred years. There are three distinct phases, starting with blue and white followed by a brief transitional period and ending with polychrome, including the raised 'sealing wax' red colour for which Iznik is perhaps best known.
Designs are almost always floral, often depicting tulips in the later period.
Published in Tulips, Arabesques and Turbans in 1982, this dish from a London private collection, is said to have been sold recently for 300,000. It belongs to the same 'Damascus' group as the dish that sold for a record price in the Chompret sale. The majority of surviving examples are now in the British Museum, London. It was said to have sold over the telephone to a bidder from the Gulf. The only other comparable dish to have appeared on the art market in recent years sold for 80,000 at Christie's, London in April 1990.