Fritware dish, painted in blue and turquoise under a transparent glaze

The dish belongs to a small group of ceramics made in what is called the Potter’s Style.¹ The group was characterized by stylistic innovations and the use of turquoise as well as a return to older blue-and-white Iznik pottery in the Baba Nakkas style (see e.g. 93a/2003). In this piece, this is first and foremost true of the rim’s intertwined palmette frieze, the cavetto’s six Chinese-inspired cloud ornaments, and the well’s outermost branches with flowers of different kinds.

The central motif is a tree with serpent-like branches from which a wealth of twigs emerge with little leaves and flowers not unlike the ones found in the period’s tughrakes style (see 11/1970). The tree is surrounded by an unusual, wavy contour in blue nuances that in turn is framed by a white, flaming aura that endows the entire dish with an emotional or spiritual expression. Only three dishes with a related theme are known from the period, and it should perhaps be seen in relation to the ancient and broadly interpretable motif “The Tree of Life,” which also plays a role in Sufism as the way to heaven or more profound understanding.