TWO FRAMED FRAGMENTS OF IZNIK POTTERY TILES
Ottoman Turkey, 16th century

Comprising two fragmentary Iznik tiles, one of vaguely rhomboid shape, painted in Armenian bole red, turquoise, cobalt blue, green and black on white ground, divided into two overlapping horizontal sections by a rectilinear bole red line, the upper half with a Chinese cloud motif crossing a scrolling rosette stem, the lower half featuring a tulip and rosette stem framed within a cusped medallion, neighboured by a larger tulip and rosette spray, the fragment set within a black-painted wooden frame, the reverse of the frame with a machine-typed inventory and provenance label in German, 17cm x 19.8cm; an another of similar fragmentary shape, painted in similar colours on white ground, the design featuring two borders of rosette and leaf stems on cobalt blue ground framing a scrolling red and green split-palmette trellis, also set within a black wooden frame, with a similar provenance label at the back, 16.5cm x 19.5cm.

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Provenance: In the collection of Heinrich Jacoby (1889 - 1956?), president of the Persische Teppiche Gesellschaft (PETAG), thence by descent;

One tile gifted by Jacoby to W. Geelhaar in 1935; the latter gifted by Jacoby's son after his father's death to H. Geelhaar-Hess in June 1959;

In a Private Swiss collection 1985 - 2000

Literature: Heinrich Jacoby, Eine Sammlung Orientalischer Teppiche, Berlin, 1923, cat. 30 and cat. 90.

On the reverse of both frames, there are two German provenance labels, stating these tiles were presented as gifts by Jacoby's family to W. Geelhaar in 1935 and H. Geelhaar-Hess in 1959. They were once part of the collection of Heinrich Jacoby, a scholar and dealer of Persian carpets who founded the Persische Teppiche Aktiengesellschaft (PETAG) workshop in 1911, manufacturing carpets outside Tabriz and reviving traditional techniques using 16th and 17th-century designs. He also authored the book "Eine Sammlung Orientalischer Teppiche" (A Collection of Orientalist Carpets) published in Berlin in 1923. According to the labels on our fragments, Heinrich Jacoby died in 1956, leaving his son Heiner Jacoby to inherit his collection. That said, Heinrich Jacoby's years of life are usually recorded as 1889 - 1964. PETAG carpets have recently appeared at auction in the UK with successful results, including Sotheby's London, 27 October 2021, lot 283 and Christie's London, 25 October 2018, lot 355. Offered in the same sale, there was also an Iznik tile previously belonging to Heinrich Jacoby, Christie's London, 25 October 2018, lot 213.