Rare İznik tile bottles fetch record price at London auction house

LONDON - Anatolia News Agency

One of the two rare İznik bottles was sold for nearly 450,000 pounds, which is a record price. DHA photo

Two rare İznik bottles from the golden age of the Ottoman Empire were sold at a Bonham Indian and Islamic auction on April 23 for a total of 748,500 pounds.

One of the tiles sold for 447,250 pounds, making it a new world record for an İznik bottle, according to the Bonham Auction House in London. The second bottle was sold for 301,250 pounds.

The bottles were previously sold by antiques dealer Frank Dickinson in January 1919. The buyer was Leonard Daneham Cunliffe, the deputy governor of the Bank of England, co-founder of the merchant bank Cunliffe Brothers, a director of the Hudson Bay Company and a major investor in Harrods.

“This spectacular bottle, which stands at 31.5 cm in height, is one of the most significant pieces of İznik to have appeared at auction. From the so-called ‘Classic’ period of İznik, its last and best-known phase in polychrome in the floral style, this and the following are two fine examples of the wares produced in the 1570s in Ottoman Turkey. The use of underglaze red, a pigment introduced with initially disappointing results in the 1550s, is used to maximum effect on this bottle with its bold orange-red saz leaves decorated in thick relief,” reported the auction house on its website.

“The market for important İznik ceramics is very strong, particularly among Turkish collectors, and these pieces certainly did not disappoint,” said Alice Bailey, head of Bonham’s Islamic Department.