Antique 16th century Islamic Turkish Ottoman Iznik LavenderEwer

Very rare antique 16th century Islamic Turkish Ottoman Iznik "lavender slip" pottery copper mounted ewer. Pear-shaped body of elegant form, ringed neck resting on short-circular foot, with the curving strap handle joining the body to the neck.
Mounted with a dense copper serpentine spout, engraved with snakeskin scales pattern, and adorned with garland form of hand sculptured elaborate cypress tree leaves, soldered to the spout. The spout is attached to a rosette base, which is pierced and chiseled with scrolling leaves, and it is secured to the body with cement.
The neck is fitted with a double-walled copper mount. The outer collar features a pierced openwork pattern, while the planar copper tube, which is an integral part of the mount, is deeply inserted into the interior of the neck's opening. It is topped with a hinged domed lid that is adorned with chevron designs.
The lavender-blue background is decorated on the front just below the spout and on the back below the handle in raised bole-white with tulip flowers. The sides feature flowers with bulbous heads adorned with black rings.
 
PROVENANCE: Ex Private old Canadian Islamic art collection, formed in the 1980s.
This rare Iznik ewer was loaned in 1990 to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada (ROM) for temporary exhibitions of Turkish Ottoman art.
The photo of the ewer shown in this exhibition is attached to this listing; please refer to the last picture included. As we are now at retirement age, we are selling items from our personal collection.
 
MEASUREMENTS:
Height: 31 cm (12.2 inches).
Width including spout: 18 cm (7.09 inches).
 
CONDITION: No cracks or repairs, nice age patina, and good signs of use, with some age-related wear to the glaze and chipping to the foot rim.
Please see all 18 photos in the listing, as they are part of the item's condition description.
 
This jug is a rare and visually stunning piece that features the same lavender-colored ground seen on a small number of Iznik ceramics from the 1550s and 1560s. During this period, potters in Iznik utilized a range of colored slips made from liquid clay to cover their ceramic pieces. They would then add intricate designs using slips of contrasting colors and paint. Although this technique emerged around the same time that relief red was introduced, which is also, like lavender, a slip color, colored grounds were not widely used.
However, excavated slipware fragments from Iznik confirm that these wares were indeed a product of Iznik (see O. Aslanapa "Pottery and Kilns from the Iznik Excavations," Forschungen zur Kunst Asiens in Memoriam Kurt Erdmann, Istanbul, 1970, pp. 143, 151, 152, 181).
Recent excavations near the Cathedral of St. George in Thessaloniki have uncovered slipware fragments, indicating that these items were likely exported. Additionally, a dish from the Jean Lagonico Collection (catalog no. 37), decorated in underglaze lavender, green, and relief red featuring a cintamani design, has a lavender slip base. This suggests that the two decorative techniques were used concurrently.
We will provide the buyer with photocopies of the reference pages along with a certificate of authenticity.