ARMENIAN POTTERY BOWL (PALESTINE) & KUTAHYA TRADITION FROM TURKEY

The Museum of Asian Art, University of Malaya (MSA) has some pieces so called "Islamic" pottery, as earlier as 17th-19th century. The record shows that its comes from the auction house (will be confirmed later). At the same time, one of our visitor, an English lady, who did her master in Turkey, give comment on this pieces as Armenian bowl pottery from Palestine area. Another sources, from the British V&A Museum related it as Kutahya tradition from Turkey.

Very interesting area to explore. Here is a link about the Kutahya.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-03/kutahya-ceramics-and-international-armenian-trade-networks/

Here is the artifact:-

Frankly to said, Middle East ceramic or so called "Islamic pottery" is not my area of studies. During the excavation in Sungai Mas, Kedah, some pieces so called seggrafito was found from the site. Unfortunately, there is no serious step taken on research. 

One of the forum that mention about may be so called Islamic Pottery, came from the Iznik and Kutahya ceramic, in Turkey. Ms Asley, an English lecturer from Hong Kong University, visited MSA, maybe sometime in 2013. He her comment about Iznik and the story of ceramic tiles in Middle East area as here:- 

There is a vast history of ceramics and tiles in the region and their

different influences and styles.  Therefore, to simplify and focus, my talk concentrates

more on early to mid 16th century when Iznik tiles reached their golden years for various

reasons and because of key people.  I’ve positioned Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent’s imperial monogram here as this was his period of reign and so you can see where he fits in the scheme of things. We can say that 1480-1560 saw the development & growth of the Iznik pottery industry and 1560 onwards the maturity and the subsequent decline into the 17th century.  I will also say at this point that experts in the field have highlighted the problem of tracing the development of the Ottoman tile industry. 

The evolution of ceramic tiles is not a simple process which can be charted by a chronological and typological classification of the tiles according to technique, colour scheme and style.  Gulru Necipoglu, Professor of Islamic Art at Harvard University has pointed out that “such a taxonomic approach leaves crucial questions about the mechanisms of artistic innovation, transformation of taste, and their meaning in the larger context of Ottoman culture.” Categorising tiles for each architectural project is difficult up to the 1550s because of the variety of designs.  Also, architectural tiles and ceramics have tended to be lumped together in the same analysis.  This is problematic before 1550 when the artistic connection between the 2 was not so obvious.  It was only after the 1550s that tiles were a main industry for themselves and the pottery an offshoot.