Curator Dr Paul Donnelly is writing an article for The Asian Arts Society of Australia (TAASA) about Iznik tiles, using one (A9636-6) from the Museum’s collection as a focus. This tile dates from about 1560 AD, the time of Suleman the Magnificent, and Paul has been consulting a range of publications about Ottoman architecture and artefacts in order to narrow down a range of buildings from which this tile may have come.
Iznik earthenware tiles, produced in 16th and 17th century Turkey were painted with stylized and symmetrical designs of flowers, leaves and fruits. Colours were blue, white, turquoise, shades of green and purple. But their most distinctive feature was the use of a deep orange-red colour (sometimes know as ‘sealing wax’ red). These beautiful tiles tiles adorned walls of public buildings including mausoleums and mosques.
During his research Paul has identified a pattern that matches the Museum’s tile. He has also made a discovery – in comparing the patterns, it’s clear that the Museum’s tile has been cut on two sides of one corner, which suggests that either it was cut to fit an architectural scheme, or was damaged on removal and the broken edges tidied up. Thanks to an interlibrary loan, we know for the first time that the tile was cut, and can see from the illustration how the original tile would have appeared when complete.