Tile, fritware body, painted under the glaze in two shades of blue, Turkey (Iznik), 1530s; from the Çinili Hamam (Tiled Bath-house) in the Zeyrek district of Istanbul.

Hexagonal tile of fritware (also called stone paste), painted under the glaze in two shades of blue. The tile is made of parts of two different tiles with the same pattern, sawn to fit -- work almost certainly done when the tiles were removed from the Çinili Hamam in 1874. The design in the main field appears as white against the dark-blue ground, with details in light-blue. A prunus tree in blossom grows from a clump of leaves, which are in the so-called saz style. Also growing from them are two stems in the same style. The stem on the right is set with leaves, buds and a large rosette. That on the left ends (unusually) in a tulip with white petals, a pattern of light-blue drop shapes and a line of dark-blue dots along the edges.Top right is part of a cloud motif. The light-blue border is decorated with two types of rosette in dark-blue: a row of larger, six-petal rosettes runs between rows of four-petal rosettes, only half of which are shown.

This tile once decorated a bathhouse in the Zeyrek district of Istanbul. The bath was designed by the famous court architect, Sinan (d. 1588), and the tiles that decorate the building relate to those made for the imperial palace in the same period. So extensive was the use of tiling on its walls that the building came to be known as the Çinili Hamam, the Tiled Bathhouse.
Patronage. Since it opened, probably in the 1530s, the bathhouse has been associated with Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa, called Barbarossa in Western sources, who is famous as the Ottoman empire’s greatest naval commander. The admiral, whose original given name was Hıdır, was born on the island of Lesbos about 1478. He began his naval career as a privateer, and in the 1510s he assisted his elder brother Oruç in establishing a “sultanate” with ever-changing borders in what is now Algeria and Tunisia. There they confronted the Spanish, whom Oruç was killed fighting in 1518. Barbarossa succeeded him, ruling under Ottoman suzerainty. In 1534 he swapped his province for command of the Ottoman navy with the title of “captain of the sea” (<i>kapudan-ı deryâ</i>). He held this post until his death in 1546, carrying out a series of successful campaigns against the Spanish and their allies, often in co-operation with the French.
After his arrival in Istanbul in 1534, Barbarossa began to erect religious foundations in the city, of which only his tomb in the Beşiktaş district survives. The admiral acquired the bathhouse in the Zeyrek district so that the profits could support these foundations.
Dispersal. The bathhouse underwent various vicissitudes over its history, including several major fires that destroyed the surrounding district and damaged the building. By the later 19th century, the remaining tilework was in poor condition, and most of the tiles were removed and sold to a dealer called Ludovic Lupti, probably in 1874. Lupti marketed them in Paris. From the 1890s to the 1950s, many examples were acquired by the V&A. At the time the Museum was unaware of their origin or even of the fact that they all came from one building. Excavation and conservation work on the bathhouse in 2010-22 established the connection beyond doubt.
This tile came to the Museum from the heirs of Mary Arnold-Foster (1861–1951). On 29 November 1952, Arthur Lane, Keeper of Ceramics and Glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum, received a letter from from John Arnold-Forster of Salthrop House, near Swindon, Wiltshire, offering the Museum a collection of tiles as a gift. Lane visited Arnold-Forster in Wiltshire on 12 December 1952 and made his selection of 26 tiles, bringing one back with him. The remainder were collected by van on 19 January 1953. The Director of the Museum wrote to thank Arnold-Forster on 13 February 1953. The gift included 15 tiles now identified as coming from the Çinili Hamam in the Zeyrek district of Istanbul, which were divided between the Ceramics and Glass Department and the Circulation Department. They were accessioned as C.2 to 6, 9, 10, and 12 to 14-1953 and as Circ.26 to 28 and 30-1953.

C.4-1953