Iznik Tankard with Tulips and Carnations, Late 16th Century – Porcelain Art Mug

A tall, straight-sided tankard — the Ottoman form called a hanap — painted as a meadow in motion. Carnations with scalloped red heads stand on leafy stems, tulips rise in blue, sprays of hyacinth hang in bells, and small red tulips lean out between the leaves, while long black stems sweep diagonally around the body. A border of blue scallops with red dots closes the field at the rim and at the foot.

Iznik, in north-western Anatolia, made the finest Ottoman ceramics of the sixteenth century. The body is fritware, a hard white paste coated in white slip, painted in cobalt blue, turquoise and black and finished under a clear glaze. The red is the signature of the period: a thick, iron-rich slip that stands slightly proud of the surface, a colour the Iznik potters mastered in the second half of the century.

The flowers are the court's own vocabulary. Tulip, carnation, hyacinth and rose run through Ottoman tiles, textiles and bookbindings of the same years, drawn from the gardens of Istanbul and repeated until they became a style of their own.

For this mug the complete painted decoration was taken from the museum's four photographs of the tankard and unrolled into one continuous band, as if the vessel had been rolled out flat. Nothing has been redrawn. The white of the porcelain takes the place of the tankard's white ground. On the tankard the painted field is closed by a black vertical rule on either side of the handle; the band on the mug ends with those same two rules, beside the mug's own handle.

Fine porcelain, 10 oz — 104 mm high, 75 mm across the base. The image runs around the body; handle and rim stay white. Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Iznik, Turkey, Ottoman period, Tankard (Hanap) with Tulips, Hyacinths, Roses, and Carnations, late 16th century; fritware with underglaze painting in blue, turquoise, red, and black, 19.6 × 15 × 10.5 cm. The Art Institute of Chicago, Mary Jane Gunsaulus Collection, 1913.342. Open-access image released by the museum under CC0.

Selected by Dr. Walther Fuchs for the Tazzarte collection.