Tile, fritware body, painted under the glaze in two shades of blue, Turkey (Iznik), 1530-40; from the Çinili Hamam (Tiled Bath-house) in the Zeyrek district of Istanbul.

Border tile of fritware (also called stone paste), painted in two shades of blue on a white ground. Set in the centre is a pointed oval figure with a scalloped outline, which contains scrollwork decoration appearing as white on the dark-blue ground. On either side of this is half of a pattern of spiralling tendrils set with complex, stencil-like blossoms and smaller five-petalled rosettes and leaves, a combination called hatâyî in Turkish. The focus of this design is a large hatâyî blossom, half of which occurs at either end of the tile. It is framed by scrollwork of a second type, called rûmî in Turkish, set with large, stylized leaves (half-palmettes). The blue border below the main field is set with three types of rosettes linked by curving stems set with small leaves, all appearing white against the blue ground, with details in light-blue.

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 was purchased at an auction at Christie’s, London, on 8 July 1896, when it was put up for sale by the executors of the painter Lord Leighton (died 25 January of the same year); it was one of the six tiles in lot 154, which sold for £8.8s.0d. Leighton had acquired tiles from several sources, including the Çinili Hamam, and had incorporated them into the decoration of his house in Holland Park Road, London, now the Leighton House Museum. The six tiles sold at Christie's were presumably surplus to requirements.

221-1896