A rare Iznik 'Golden Horn' pottery vase, Turkey, circa 1530-40

The group of wares known as 'Golden Horn' took their name from a collection of sherds discovered on the waterways of the southern shores of Istanbul in the early twentieth century (Carswell 1998, p.50). Others are said to be have been found nearby Aksaray (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.108). They were published as ‘Golden Horn’ by Migeon and Sakisian 1923, pp.128-9, based on a record by the seventeenth century Turkish traveller Evliya Celebi. Although there are records of pottery production on the Golden Horn at this period, the association is misleading and the pieces in this group are clearly the work of the potters of Iznik and Kutahya, as further confirmed by excavations undertaken in 1984 by Professor Aslanapa in Iznik that revealed fragments of this pottery style (Aslanapa et al. 1989, p.149).

The group displays a form of decoration, predominantly a series of floral concentric spirals, which neither evolve from an Iznik antecedent nor leave a significant legacy in that tradition. Rather, the inspiration seems to come from contemporary illumination, and in particular Imperial illumination of a type found on the background of the Sultan's tughras (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.109, fig.131). It is significant that the tughra, which acted as an imperial signature or calligraphic insigna for each Ottoman sultan, was often used on firmans, edicts made by the Sultan himself, with his tughra as a heading, that were created, issued and controlled s.olely by the Ottoman Imperial Chancery in the Topkapi Palace. Specifically trained court officials known as tughrakes, were solely in charge of drawing and illuminating these on each document. It is with Sultan Suleyman Magnificent (r.1520-66) that these works took on important oeuvres d’art with the use of expensive gold ink and detailed decorative designs within. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, houses an impressive firman bearing the tughra of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, inv. no. 38.149.1. Although dated to the later part of his reign, it demonstrates the evolution of this scrolling motif in its complex curved saz leaves, lotus blossoms and feathery-leaves. Sotheby's sold an early sixteenth century illuminated Qur'an copied by Mustafa Dede with a finely executed finispiece featuring a similar blue on white split palmettes scroll as on this example (8 October 2014, lot 31). 

Surviving examples of ‘Golden Horn’ pottery show that while the general format of spiralling stems remained unchanged, the minor motifs and the style of drawing varied, some incorporating rounded hooks within the spiral stems (see a dish sold in these rooms, 1 May 2019, lot 130), others with hooks that curve at the tails (see a dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc.no.41.45), trefoil hooks as shown by a dish in the Waletrs Art Museum (acc.no. 48.22810 and others no hooks at all (see a mosque lamp in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc.no.59.69.3). The artist of this vase displays a particularly confident, free variation of the design with exuberant hook and palmette motifs that emphasise the motion of the spiral.

Moreover, craftsmen were not limited in the forms they produced and various vessels have survived including dishes, bottles, jugs, mosque lamps and tondino among others. The inverted slightly pear-shaped body of this vase is unusual in Iznik pottery where the profile is typically more globular (see, for example a water-pot sold in these rooms, 18 April 2009, lot 169) or with a rounded tapering body as shown in Iznik bottles such as an ‘Golden Horn’ bottle in the British Museum (inv.no.1878,1230.519).

The bulbous, pyriform body of the vase might be paralleled to one of the most famous pieces of the group, the Godman flask in the British Museum (Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.46), whose body is a rounded pear shape, the inverse of the present example. The fame of that bottle is in part due to its bearing an inscription with historical information on its base and collar. Unusual enough in itself, the inscription also provides a rare document of the dating and origin, in this case Kutahya, 1529, giving a relatively secure dating for the Golden Horn wares. The vase shares further similarities with the present vase such as the of repeated ‘S’ motifs above the register of scrolls and a relatively free style of drawing. Both examples present a similar pattern of large craquelure and slight pitting in the glaze which might suggest a similar place of production.

Examples of comparable 'Golden Horn' wares in museum and personal collections include:

Dish, David Collection, Copenhagen, inv. no. 43-1973.

Dish, Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul, inv. no. 301.3904. 

Dish, British Museum, London, inv. no. 87.6-17.9.

Dish, British Museum, London, inv. no. G.1983.17.

Dish, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 66.4.11.

Dish, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 41.45.

Dish, Kuwait National Museum, inv. no. LNS 231C. 

Dish, Musée de l’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, inv. no. 55.92.

Dish, Sotheby’s, New York, 21 May 1981, lot 218 (ex-collection Egene Bernat).

Bowl, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. no. 790-1905.

Bowl, Atasoy and Raby 1989, p.109, no.135. 

Bowl, Museum fur Islamische Kunst, Berlin, inv. no. 1.5567. 

Footed bowl, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. no. 243-1876.

Bowl with missing foot, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, inv. no. 1980-1910.

Jug with cover, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 66.4.3. 

Jug with cover, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, inv. no. 1952.269. 

Jug, David Collection, Copenhagen, inv. no. 11/1970.

Carafe, Museo Civico, Bologna, inv. no. 1303.

Bottle, British Museum, London, inv. no. 78.12.30.519.

Fragmentary bottle, British Museum, London, inv. no. G.1983.118.

Hanap, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, inv. no. 58-1911.

Tondino, Kier Collection, London.

Tondino, ex-collection Lady Barlow, Cambridge, sold at Bonham’s, 16 October 2003, lot 228.

Tondino, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, inv. no. X.3274.

Tondino, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, inv. no. D 167.

Tile fragments, Museum fur Islamische Kunst, Berlin, inv. no. 5614.