Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.

2008 - 1/8

Ktahya patterns : out of the blue?

Yolande Crowe
Forthcoming in Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 71, 2006-2007

Although Turkish ceramics have a long history, it is fair to say that they are better known for the
16th and 17th centuries Ottoman production of Iznik, the ancient Nicea, than for the more exotic
18th century tiles and vessels from the kilns in Ktahya. The town itself lies inland about 100 kms
South-South-East both of Iznik and Bursa. The polychrome decoration on tiles and small cups with
saucers and ewers, have in recent years become collectors pieces, yet Ktahya patterns out of the
blue? is the concern of this paper. The title may sound rather flippant nonetheless the use of the
colour blue in this particular ceramic decoration remains at the centre of the present research. How
can one explain the advent in Ktahya of what appears to be a new type of blue and white
1
production early in the 18th century? The polychrome pieces will be the subject of a further study.

Out of the blue indeed! Half a century ago Arthur Lane wrote about poor drawing and inferior
2
colours on Iznik wares after 1640. However in neighbouring Iran there was no such poor drawing,
colours were excellent and cobalt blue never ceased to be used by potters up to the Afghan
invasion in 1722 and the fall of the Safavid dynasty. Earlier the influence of captured Tabrizi
craftsmen on the tile work of Istanbul mosques after the Persian defeat of Chaldiran (1514) is well
documented, yet no later similar influences have ever been mentioned, although on several
occasions in the last few years, late Safavid dishes and water sprinklers have been mistaken for
Ktahya wares. The confusion arose when new patterns originating in China, such as the cone
pattern, were immediately adopted by the Safavid potter and only later by the potteries of
Ktahya. Thus parallels can be discovered between Persian and Ktahya productions of the early
18th century.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND, THE ARMENIAN NETWORK

Over the centuries ramifications between scattered Armenian communities grew to form a
remarkable network across Eurasia and in particular between Persia and the Mediterranean world.
The silk trade and other commercial activities were in the hands of the New Julfan merchants in the
3
17th and 18th centuries. Besides, records gathered by John Carswell attest a 15th century presence
of an Armenian population in Ktahya. In 1444, an Armenian potter, Murad, offered a mantle to a
4
priest in the church of the Mother of God in Ktahya. In his recent research Garo Krkman
mentions a land survey recording a kiln in 1537, and decrees in 1579 about tiles, and in 1608
about cups. The earliest agreement between the state and the cup makers guild is dated AH1178
(AD 1764). Sixty-nine journeymen are listed and also thirty-four master craftsmen, mostly
5
Armenian names. In the 1670s Evliya elebi traveled to Ktahya and recorded three Armenian
6
and three Greek districts out of thirty four in existence.

1
Ktahya designs and Asian trade, in Patrons, Traders and Makers, People and art in the Islamic Middle East, a
conference held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, April 27-28 2007, forthcoming.
2
Lane 1957, p. 58.
3
Herzig 1993, pp 287-304. Ghougassian 1998.
4
Carswell 1972, vol. 2, p. 2.
5
Krkman 2006, pp 51, 52, 84, pp 108-113.
6
Krkman 2006, p. 68.
Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.2008 - 2/8

7
Furthermore, archaeological work in the town under Faruk .Sahn has confirmed the existence of a
16th century blue and white production close to that of the famous ewer and bottle in the British
8
Museum. An inscription on the ewer reads as follows: This vessel is in commemoration of Abraham,
servant of God, of Ktahya in this year 959/1510, March 11th. 1524 AD is the date read at the top
of the shoulder of the neckless bottle. The rest of the inscription reads: Bishop Ter Martiros sent
word to Ktahya: May the Mother of God intercede for you: send one water-bottle (surahi) here.
May Ter Martiros receive it in peace. In the year 978/1529 on the 18th of March this bottle was
inscribed. Another text can be read inside the base: Ter Martiros sent word from Ankara: May this
water-bottle [be] an object [of] Ktahya for this monastery of the Holy Mother of God.

These two dated pieces and the archaeological finds show a decoration similar to that of the Iznik
production during the first half of the 16th century. That Ktahya kilns supplemented those of Iznik
throughout the 16th century is now evident. While 17th century Iznik ceramics failed to keep up
earlier standards of quality and design, the Ktahya potteries must have also maintained some
output to justify the renewed 18th century production as a fresh decorative vocabulary suddenly
appeared on the market. Hence, what could be the reasons for the survival of the potteries in
Ktahya and how did a new set of shapes and designs appear out of the blue?

Archaeological finds in Ktahya and in a number of harbours such as London and Amsterdam as
well as aboard shipwrecks, have proved the popularity of Ktahya cups and saucers around the
world in the 18th century, displaying a variety of designs including the symptomatic cone design.
Sale catalogues regularly illustrate colourful series of Ktahya wares with new shapes such as jugs
and coffee pots indicating close contacts with European fashion. Was this cone design, either in
blue or polychrome, directly borrowed from Chinese dishes and ewers, or could there have been
indirect influences through Persia? Persian potters, it seems, were the first to take over this cone
design before the turn of the century.

THE CONE DESIGN

It was only by 1683 that the potteries of Jingdezhen in China were officially reopened under the
Qing emperor Kangxi (r.1662-1722).The renewed activities of the kilns responded to imperial
needs and to the ever increasing demand for Chinese high fired wares from Asia and indeed from
Europe. Their designs were no longer connected with either earlier Chinese Kraak wares of the
Ming dynasty, or with Transitional export pieces; new motifs were adapted to a different and alien
9
Qing taste with flowery outlines close to textile embroideries. Among these export ware motifs one
of the more popular was the cone design (figs 1 & 1a).

The early Kangxi patterns of the new dynasty are well represented in the Topkapi Serai Museum
10
collection. According to the size and shape of the object the cone motif is repeated in various
numbers: four, six, eight or just one cone on certain ewers. Their contours can be fairly straight or
with small wisps and densely packed fillings or lined with converging branches. As early as the last
decade of the 17th century some of these variations were reinterpreted by the Safavid potter on
dishes of medium size, more often in fours and sixes (figs 2 & 2a). A double blue ring, acting as a
signature, can be noticed inside the base of some of these dishes. This feature appeared originally
on Kangxi bowls.

7
.Sahn 1981, pp 259-286.
8
Krkman, pp 53, 56.
9
Tregear 1979, pp 149-158, p.151.
10
Krahl 1986, vol. 3, pp 979-985.
Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.2008 - 3/8

1 1a
Wash bowl, Kangxi, W: 33 cm, inv. 4675 Ewer Kangxi, H: 32 cm, inv. 4680
Topkapi Serai Museum. Topkapi Serai Museum.

2 2a
Dish, Persian, front and back, W: 20.3 cm; Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. 1166-1876.

With the arrival on the Persian market of such new designs the potter immediately expanded his
decorative vocabulary during the rule of the last active shah of the dynasty, Shah Sultan Husayn
(r.1694-1722). In the Victoria & Albert Museum catalogue of blue and white Safavid ceramics the
use of the cone design is well illustrated by a Persian ewer (fig. 3), quite clearly inspired by the
11
new production of Jingdezhen. Other Chinese designs were taken over, such as the so called
aster pattern which should require further study.

Regina Krahl has used the word cone to describe the new shape, although on occasions she
replaces it by the word palmette. In the present context the word cone will be preferred to
palmette since the latter has slightly different connotations in earlier Islamic art. No doubt the shape
originated in Islamic lands. The Gujarati designers and dyers of the middle Ages knew what themes
would be popular in Egypt when among their designs they created special tree and cone shapes for
12
their fast dyed cottons. Similar shapes were later woven into Mamluk silks (fig. 4), Safavid and
Mughal brocades which found their way to Far Eastern markets through traditional channels of
trade and the dealings of East Indian companies from the early 17th century. Finally this foreign
cone pattern was adopted by the potteries under the rule of emperor Kangxi.

11
Crowe 2002, nos. 352, 355, 356, 434, 435, 436, 437.
12
There is a number of related examples in Barnes 1997.
Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.2008 - 4/8

3 4 5
Ewer, Persian, H: 22.7 cm, Mamluk textile, detail, Tile composition,
Victoria & Albert Museum, after the Topkapi Palace the Selimiye mosque, Edirne,
inv. 189-1977. Museum, inv. 13/1689. 1568-1574.

In no way should the cone be confused with the ogival shape made famous on Iznik tiles such as
those in the Sultans loggia of the Selimiye mosque in Edirne (1568-1574) on the Bulgarian border
(fig. 5). As mentioned above the Safavid blue cone has often lead auction houses astray, when it
has been interpreted as a typical Ktahya pattern. A four-cone dish from the Victoria & Albert
Museum is a case in point (fig 2 & 2a); at first site it could be labeled Ktahya. Yet by looking at
the outer decoration, no mistake can be made. Fan shapes with ribbons have never been painted
on the outer flange of a Ktahya dish! Another case of mistaken identity from a sale catalogue is
provided by the bulbous part of a sprinkler (fig. 6). When placed alongside another sprinkler base
with an Armenian monogram with similar cones (fig. 6a), it is evident that they have the same
cone decoration which relates them to a ewer with the same monogram (fig. 3). The shape of the
ewer itself belongs to similar Persian ewers of the late 17th century. Ktahya ewers or coffee pots
do not have the same profile (fig. 7).

6
Sprinkler body, Persian,
H: 10 cm,
Christies sale, London,
October 10 1999, lot 403b.

6a
Sprinkler body, Persian,
H: 11.5 cm,
Victoria & Albert Museum
inv. 1248-1876.

7
Coffee pot, Ktahya,
H: 17 cm,
Arts Dcoratifs, Paris,
inv. 8214.
Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.2008 - 5/8

There exists a third piece, a white incised dish, 23 cm wide, with the same monogram boldly set at
13
the centre of it. Could these three pieces be part of an early 18th century dinner service? The
owner of the monogram is Paron Safraz, who died in 1717; he was one of the richest merchants of
New Julfa, the Armenian town across the river from Isfahan. The importance of the Armenian
merchant community to which he belonged, as well as the part played by the community in the
economy of the Safavid state, has been demonstrated earlier. Suffice is to remember its extensive
network stretching from Lisbon to Canton, inclusive of Lhassa from the 1680s until 1717.

FURTHER CONNECTIONS AND CHRONOLOGY

If a link exists between Persia and Ottoman Ktahya through the cone design in blue and also in
polychrome, what further links can be detected which would combine shape and/or pattern? The
shape of the late 17th century ewer of Paron Safraz is different from the 1510 blue and white
Ottoman ewer. In turn it is replaced by coffee pot and jug shapes brought to Ktahya workshops, I
have suggested, by the Armenian community in contact with the requests of the European market.
The cone pattern survives the passage of time, not the shape.

8 & 8a
Dish, Ktahya, front and back, W: 18.9 cm, Victoria & Albert Museum inv. 597-1874.

Three more designs, in the blue and white colour scheme and less Out of the blue?, demonstrate
further connections, one with Iznik, the two others with Chinese origins. The first design could be a
debased version of an Iznik flower spray, possibly closer to Ottoman embroideries; it is applied to
medium size dishes and coffee pots. On a dish from the Victoria & Albert Museum (597-74) flower
sprays decorate the outside and broad cones the inside; and a double ring appears inside the base
14
of the dish (figs 8 & 8a). An expanded flower spray covers both sides of a coffee pot (fig. 7), the
shape of which totally differs from 17th century Persian ewers as noticed earlier. Unexpectedly four
flower sprays also decorate the back of a polychrome dish illustrating the archangel Gabriel; it is
dated 1718 (figs 9 & 9a), which makes possible a dating of this type of decoration to the first
quarter of the 18th century.

The second design, a single leaf, has a longer history. It first appears on a 1667 Chinese medium
size dish and later the Vung Tau wreck around 1690 carried a large number of such Chinese dishes.

13
Crowe 2002, no. 354.
14
This dish (figs 8 & 8a) was mistaken for a Persian dish in the early V&A accession books. The correct
attribution to Persia was made at a later date.
Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.2008 - 6/8

9 & 9a
Archangel Michael dish, front and back, W: 22 cm, dated 1718, Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. 279-1893.

15
During that period several Persian leaf variations were produced in a variety of styles (fig. 10).
And it was with some surprise that a small bowl from a mid 18th century ship wreck off Kartal in
the Marmara Sea also produced a small bowl with a similar leaf pattern at the bottom of it (fig.
16
10a).

10 10a
Dish, Persian, W: 15.5 cm, Iran Bastan Museum, Bowl Ktahya, W: 7 cm, ini kosk, Istanbul.
Tehran.

The third design belongs to a more complex set of patterns. The decoration on the broad flange of
a blue and white Ktahya basin consists of a treble scroll with a separate motif as divider consisting
of a shell-looking device (figs 11 & 11a). The original design of the scroll belongs to the realm of
17
textiles, whereas the shell shape refers to the European Baroque style, and was first used in
ceramics on flanges of Chinese export porcelain plates (figs 12 & 12a). It must have taken a fairly
sophisticated Kthaya designer to combine both designs on one dish!

15
Crowe 1979, pp 390-398.
16
Krman p. 217.
17
Crowe Y., Ktahya and caravans, forthcoming in Oriental Art.
Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.2008 - 7/8

11 & 11a
Basin, Ktahya, approximately 28 cm wide
Present location unknown
.

12 & 12a
Plate, Chinese export porcelain, W: 28.5 cm
British Museum Frank collection, inv. F587

CONCLUSION

If in the first place there has been earlier confusion between Persian ceramics and those produced
in Kthaya, would it not indicate a fairly close connection between the two ceramic productions of
Persia and Ktahya at the turn of the 17th century? It is tempting to suggest that some potters
from the area of Isfahan/New Julfa might have emigrated west at the time of heightened tension
between Shah Sultan Husayn and his Armenian subjects from the early years of the 18th century.
The Safavid dynasty was to collapse in 1722 under the attacks of the Afghans. It is well known that
at the end of the 17th century, laws against religious minorities had been loosened in Turkey
making Ottoman territory more attractive to Persian Armenian craftsmen. As a result potters would
have been attracted to Ktahya where they could settle in a more congenial environment. Their
early awareness of Chinese new designs combined with closer contacts with the Mediterranean
world explains the renewal of designs as well as shapes. The Persian cone pattern survived in its
original design for a while, so did the painting of a double blue ring inside the base of dishes. These
are interesting pointers to an influence and to a presence of Persian potters in Ktahya in the 18th
century. The combined international demand for and significant revival of the Ktahya potteries
was likely due to the renewal of designs from Persia through their potters as well as through a
direct influence from Chinese motifs on export porcelains for the European market.
Ktahya patterns : out of the blue? Yolande Crowe - 20.2.2008 - 8/8

Bibliography

Barnes 1997
R. Barnes, Indian block-printed textiles from Egypt. The Newberry collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford,
2 vols, Oxford 1997.

Carswell 1972
J. Carswell, Ktahya tiles and pottery from the Armenian cathedral of St. James, Jerusalem, 2 vols., Oxford
1972.

Crowe 1979
Y. Crowe, Persian variations on a Chinese motif, in Faenza, LXV 1979, pp 390-398.

Crowe 2002
Y. Crowe, Persia and China, Safavid blue and white ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum 1501-1738,
London 2002.

Ghougassian 1998
V. S. Ghougassian, The emergence of the Armenian diocese of New Julfa in the seventeenth century, Atlanta
1998.

Herzig 1993
E. M. Herzig, The family firm in the commercial organization of the Julfa Armenians, in Etudes safavides,
Paris/Tehran 1993, pp 287-304.

Krahl 1986
R. Krahl, Chinese ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, 3 vols. London 1986.

Lane 1957
A. Lane, Later Islamic pottery, London 1957.

Krkman 2006
G. Krkman, Magic of clay and fire, a history of Ktahya pottery and potters, Istanbul 2006.

Sahn
. 1981
F. Sahn,
. Ktahya ini-keramik sanati ve tarihinin yeni buluntular aisindan degerlendirilmesi, in Sanat Tarihi
Yillgi IX-X, Sanat Tarihi Enstits 1979-1980, Istanbul 1981, pp 259-286.

Tregear 1979
M. Tregear, Manchu taste in Ching porcelain decoration, in Decorative techniques and styles in Asian
ceramics, Collloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia no. 8, London 1979, pp 149-158.