AN IZNIK-STYLE POLYCHROME-PAINTED SAMSON POTTERY SPOUTED EWER
France, late 19th - early 20th century

AN IZNIK-STYLE POLYCHROME-PAINTED SAMSON POTTERY SPOUTED EWER
France, late 19th - early 20th century

Of pyriform shape, resting on a sloping, stepped foot, rising to broad, fluted shoulders, with a cylindrical neck with several bulging rings at different heights, surmounted by a dome-like hemispherical lid with a bulbous finial, the sides enhanced with a curved handle and a sinuous dragon spout, painted in bright polychromes under a glossy transparent glaze against a milky white ground, decorated with typical Ottoman Iznik pottery revival motifs including cusped arabesque cartouches, floral triumphs emerging from drop-shaped vases, interlocking vegetal meanderings, split palmette scrolls, and red-dotted rosettes, the handle and dragon spout spotted in blue and black, the base marked with a green spiral, 43cm high.

The polychrome-painted decoration on this ewer clearly echoes both the motif and the palette of Ottoman Iznik wares, a stylistic choice shared by many European ceramic manufacturers at the end of the 19th century including Samson and Theodore Deck. However, the most remarkable and distinctive feature of this ewer, which is its shape, is inspired by a much earlier metal vessel: the Cairene silver-inlaid brass ewer made for the Rasulid Sultan al-Mu'ayyad Da'ud ibn Yusuf I of Yemen by 'Ali b. Husayn b. Muhammad al-Mawsili. This ewer previously belonged to the 19th-century photographer Albert Goupil (1840 - 1884), the youngest son of the great French merchant of stamps, painting, and photographic reproductions of canvasses Adolphe Goupil (1806 - 1893). Upon Albert's death, his collection was sold at auction in Paris on 2nd May 1888, when it was bought by the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. It is possible that models in ceramics like ours started circulating around this time. Today, the ewer is on public display at the Louvre Museum (inv. no. AD 4412).

(Quantity:1)

Dimensions: 43cm high