A porcelain covered tureen for the Ottoman market, Jingdezhen, China, Qianlong period (1736-95)

inscriptions

the interior: the Shahada, a prayer, Qur'an, surah al-Fatiha (I)

the exterior: around the rim: Qur’an, surah al-Baqarah (II), v. 255

in the cartouches: Qur’an, surah al-Ikhlas (CXII), surah al-Falaq (CXIII), and surah al-Nas (CXIV)

The inscriptions on the lid are identical to the exterior of the bowl.

This covered tureen forms part of a well-known service produced at the Chinese porcelain factories of Jingdezhen in the second half of the eighteenth century of which a large number of extant pieces are in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The Qur'anic verses and more specifically the crescent moon and star have a strong Ottoman flavour suggesting that the service was a special commission for an important Turkish client. The quality and size of the service is commensurate with an imperial court order although the Ottoman archive has so far failed to produce any written record of such a commission. The service may have been presented as a gift to the sultan or entered the Topkapi via the confiscatory Ottoman inheritance system whereby the property of a deceased estate automatically reverted to the crown, but again no record exists.

John Ayers writes: "At present it is possible only to speculate on the purpose for which this service was devised. The unusual number of porcelain covered bowls of eighteenth-century date in the collection generally is suggestive of regular use, as for a hot liquid such as soup, or alternatively for some form of dessert. However, enquiries have so far failed to produce evidence concerning the precise Turkish equivalents for these vessels, whether in pottery or metal, which would presumably have acted as the models for them" (Krahl and Ayers 1986, p.1256).

On the dating of the service, Ayers comments: "The distinctly massive effect seen in the grounds and borders, and also the rather heavy enamelling itself, point towards the end of the [eighteenth] century" (ibid, p.1257). Ayers also notes that the Qur'anic verses are copied in a form of naskh script typical of eighteenth-century Ottoman Turkey although minor discrepancies indicate that they were certainly copied on site at Jingdezhen probably from calligraphies sent from Turkey.

The Topkapi Saray collection includes two tureens and two stands, forty two bowls, fifty three covers and seven cups from the service. Further tureens belonging to the service are in the Musee Guimet, Paris, and the Musee d'Art et Histoire, Brussels. An identical porcelain tureen was sold in these rooms, 9 October 2013, lot 174; another tureen from this group was sold in these rooms, 28 April 2004, lot 142, and a large example with closely comparable decoration was sold in these rooms, 31 March 2021, lot 102.