• latw-228-1
    Fragments of Islamic pottery, Nos. 228-232. No. 228: Fragment of Iznik II bowl (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Fragment of Iznik II bowl

Date
Ca. 1540-1560 AD, Islamic
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
P62.036
Material
Ceramic
Object Type
Pottery
Pottery Shape
Bowl
Pottery Ware
Iznik II Ware
Pottery Attribution
Site
Sardis
Sector
PN
Trench
PN
Description
Dish with low, flaring foot ring, shallow, concave sides, and flange rim. Body of hard, rather coarse white (Munsell 5Y 8/1) clay with thin, white slip on both interior and exterior. Design underglaze painted in sage green, azure, and turquoise, with forms outlined in greenish-black contour lines. Decoration on interior from center consists of central zone filled with plant forms (a clump of long, slender leaves in sage, blooms in sage with turquoise centers on slender tendrils, and a heavy azure stem) enclosed in a border of scale-like lobes in sage green, and finally, just within the rim, a pair of narrow, concentric, greenish-black rings. On exterior from top, a narrow, greenish-black ring enclosing Chinese cloud scrolls in azure, a scattering of long, slender leaves in sage, and a scaly mass of sage leaves on a turquoise stem, across which is superimposed a narrow, azure stem bearing a great sage and turquoise bud and a pair of azure blooms with turquoise centers. Foot enclosed with a narrow, greenish-black ring. Glazed on both interior and exterior with close-fitting, colorless glaze of even thickness. Slight iridescence. Diameter of rim 22.5 cm, diameter of foot ring 9.0 cm, height 5.5 cm.
Comments
From Sardis, excavation sector PN. Crane: Fine fully developed Iznik II of this sort was produced only briefly and in small quantities, and is exceedingly rare. See Lane 1957, pl. B.
See Also
Bibliography
H. Crane, “The Glazed Pottery of the Turkish Period from Sardis,” unpublished manuscript (1977), 6, 23-24, no. 5; Crane in Greenewalt 1977, 51-52 and fig. 3.
Author
CHG