Tinned copper dish with lotuses, cloud bands and blessings in Persian, Iran, 1496-97.

Flat dish with a shallow foot-ring and low walls that curve inwards towards the flat rim. The decoration - an unusual three-part composition - has three medallions with cusped outlines filled with a lotus, two split palmettes and other leaves. The interstices are filled withe Chinese-style clouds. At the centre of the design is a small patterned disc. The background is cross-hatched.. The walls show six cartouches with round ends, which contain verses in Persian written in the thulth style, against a cross-hatched ground. Between the cartouches are six roundels containing a Y-pattern. The cartouches and roundels and the band that contains them are all defined by a continuous plain fillet. The spare corners around the roundels are filled with a fragment of arabesque. The rim is decorated with an oblique chain motif similar to that used in the central disc.

Purchased in Istanbul in 1897 from Mrs Alice Whitaker, daughter and heir of William Henry Wrench (1836-96). Wrench was British consul in the city when he died, and he had formed a significant collection of Ottoman and Iranian objects while in the consular service. For images of how Wrench displayed his collection in his home in the Pera (Beyoğlu) district of the city, see V&A: PH.331 to 334-1892.

dated AH 902

The inscription on this decorative bowl contains three couplets by famous poets, all expressing good wishes for the owner.



It is made of copper covered with a layer of tin. The tinned metal once shone like silver. This bright surface would have contrasted strongly with the recessed background, which was filled with a black composition.

374-1897