Bowl

With curving sides, sloping foot ring fired buff-orange. Freely decorated with a wreath of seven flowers, with double rings at the rim, and two pairs of rings at the centre framing a single peony surrounded by veined leaves, on the outside a ring of classic scroll and rumi motifs; below, six large flowers with pointed, spiral petals on a double undulating stem. The bowl belongs to a group of Chinese export wares, c.1500 A.D., of which numerous examples exist in the Topkapı Sarayı collection, and have been noted from Syria, and in the Ardebil collection, as well as in the Far East. A terminus ante quem is provided by Giovanni Bellini's painting, The feast of Gods, 1514 A.D., in the National Gallery of Art, Washinghton D.C.Reference: Carswell, J., Chinese Ceramics in the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Sadberk Hanım Museum Publication, İstanbul, 1995, p.53.