GRAND PICHET EN CÉRAMIQUE À DÉCOR BLEU ET BLANC

TURKEY, KUTAHYA, OTTOMAN ART, 18th CENTURY A large siliceous ceramic pitcher with an ovoid body and a high cylindrical neck, decorated in blue, blue-grey and white. The body is surrounded by two large registers decorated with six stylised poly-lobed leaves enclosing a bouquet, in compartments on a light blue background, and the neck with three similar panels. The bands alternate with floral and beaded friezes. There is a long crack across the width of the body on one side, visible in the illustration. A LARGE AND RARE BLUE AND WHITE DECORATED POTTERY JUG, TURKEY, KUTAHYA, OTTOMAN, 18TH CENTURY. H: 27.5 cm Christie's Public Sale, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including the collection of Dr Mohammed Said Farsi, London, 5 October 2010, lot 329. Exhibition catalogue, Colours of the East. Arts et arts de vivre dans l'Empire ottoman, Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, 2010, p. 112. Kütahya's first productions are blue-and-white decorated. An almost identical jug, formerly in the Adda Collection, dated to the first half of the 18th century, is published by Bernard Rachkam, Islamic Pottery and Italian Maiolica, 1959, cat. no. 224A, p. 52, illustrated pl. 97B. The author suggests that the form is inspired by German Westerwald stoneware jugs. A Kütahya ceramic writing case in the Sadberk Hanim Museum in Istanbul has almost the same decoration of poly-lobed leaves on a blue background (exhibition catalogue by Marlies Kleiterp and Charlotte Huygens, Istanbul. The City and the Sultan, De Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam, 2007, cat. 141, p. 110, inv. no. 3993). Expert : L.S. Handle redone, restoration at the foot, stains in the material.