AN OTTOMAN SILK VELVET AND METAL THREAD PANEL
BURSA OR ISTANBUL, TURKEY, FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY

Price Realized £11,250 ($18,113)

Estimate £10,000 - £15,000 ($16,110 - $24,165)

Sale Information
Christies SALE 5708 —
ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLD
4 October 2012
London, King Street

Lot Description
AN OTTOMAN SILK VELVET AND METAL THREAD PANEL
BURSA OR ISTANBUL, TURKEY, FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY
The red velvet ground with silver and gold ground palmettes within ogival lattice strapwork linked by crown motifs and filled with hatayi flowers, the medallions circled by vine issuing tulips and further rosettes, in later applied chevron-patterned border, backed with hessian with four hanging loops
60 x 25¼in. (152.4 x 64.2cm.)

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE D. LUIS BRAMÃO

Lot Notes
This impressive velvet combines elements imported from Italian textiles with motifs that are recognizably from the Ottoman decorative repertoire of the 16th and 17th centuries. A velvet in the Louvre, catalogued as 'Italian manufacture for the Ottoman market', provides a likely precedent for the group of textiles to which ours belongs (inv. MAO 932, Istanbul, Isfahan, Delhi. 3 Capitals of Islamic Art. Masterpieces from the Louvre Collection, exhibition catalogue, 2008, no. 12, pp.105-06). It is similarly decorated with large palmettes contained within an ogival lattice linked by crowns.

It is likely that textiles bearing crowns, with their association with royalty, were sent as gifts to the Ottoman palace, appreciated by the Sultan, and subsequently commissioned locally. Of note is that one of only two cut-velvet imperial kaftans to have survived in the Topkapi Palace collections bears an almost identical design, supporting this royal suggestion (N. Atasoy, W.B.Denny L.W.Mackie and H.Tezcan, Ipek. The Crescent & The Rose, London, 2001, fig. 88, p.136). That is dated to the first half of the 17th century.

A miniature from the second volume of the Hünername, written in honour of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent by the writer Seyyid Lokman, which depicts Sutlan Süleyman hunting at the Filibe (Plovdiv) palace shows two important aghas of the Has Oda, or Privy Chamber, wearing kaftans clearly patterned with medallions joined by crowns. They are the çuhadar (in charge of the sultan's outer garments) and the silahdar (sword-bearer) (3 capitals of Islamic Art, op. cit., p.105). Similarly in the Kiyâfetü'l-insâniye fi email-I Osmaniye (Human Physiognomy Concerning the Person Dispositions of the Ottomans), written by Seyyid Lokman Ashuri in 1579 and illustrated by Nakka Osman, early Ottoman Sultans are portrayed in crown-embellished robes (H.1563, David J. Roxburgh (ed.), Turks. A Journey of a Thousand Years, 600-1600, exhibition catalogue, London, 2005, fig. 49, pp.270-71). The depiction of such robes being worn by the highest elite - Sultans and members of the Privy Chamber that surrounded them - highlights the royal symbolism of the design.

What are plainly Italian elements in the Louvre textile have become distinctly Ottoman in the present example and in the Topkapi kaftan. The Italian caper leaves for instance, which are a feature foreign to Ottoman art (found on a pattern for an Italian textile, dated 1555, N. Atasoy et al, op. cit., fig. 37, p.183), have here become familiar tulips. An Ottoman velvet, on green ground, but similarly worked with a lattice linked with crowns, is in the Keir Collection (B.W.Robinson (ed.), Islamic Art in the Keir Collection, London, 1988, no.T56, pp.105-06). That example is dated to the mid 16th century but in the fussiness of the design bears closer resemblance to the Italian precursors than does ours. Closer to ours are two panels in the Sadberk Hanim Müzesi, dated to the second half of the 17th century (Hülya Bilgi, Çatma ve Kemha. Ottoman Silk Textiles, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 2007, no. 21, pp.66-67). Those examples, like ours, shows the development of the design which has simplified and become even more recognizably Ottoman. Other similar panels of hatayi palmettes with four crowns on a lattice are in the Abegg-Siftung, Riggisberg-Berne (inv.no.2213); Bargello Museum, Florence (inv.no.103F); Musée Historique des Tissus, Lyon (inv.no.27.887); Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (inv.no.972,415.222, a fragment) and Benaki Museum (inv.no.3812). A liturgical vestment formed of çatmas with crown motifs is in the Lublin Museum of Ecclesiastic Art in Poland (Nevber Gürsu, The Art of Turkish Weaving. Designs through the Ages, Istanbul, 1988, no.72, p.91).
So striking is the design that in the 19th century, a closely related pattern on a textile, of a palmette with two crowns, served as the model for the Scottish carpet and textile manufacturers Alexander Morton & Co. An example of this is in the Art Institute of Chicago (Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment, inv. 1988.106).