An Exceptional and Rare Ottoman Kütahya Pottery Hand-Washing Set (İbrik ve Leğen), Produced by the Armenian Potters of Kütahya, Ottoman Turkey, Second Half of the 18th Century (circa 1760–1790)

Description

An exceptional and remarkably rare Ottoman Kütahya pottery hand-washing set, İbrik ve Leğen, produced by the Armenian potters of Kütahya during the second half of the eighteenth century.

The set comprises a beautifully proportioned pear-shaped ewer (İbrik) with a tall cylindrical neck, an elegant loop handle terminating in a graceful scroll, a long tapering spout supported by a modelled ceramic strut, and a spreading circular foot. Characteristic of Ottoman ewers, the spout rises almost to the level of the neck opening, producing the balanced and refined silhouette associated with Ottoman ibriks from the seventeenth century onwards.

The form ultimately derives from contemporary Ottoman metalwork prototypes produced in brass, copper, silver and gilt copper (tombak), demonstrating the manner in which the Kütahya potters translated prestigious Ottoman metal vessels into ceramic.

The accompanying basin (Leğen) is of broad circular form, with a deep central well raised upon a high foot ring and designed to receive the ewer when the two pieces are displayed or stored together. Its form corresponds closely with surviving eighteenth-century Kütahya basins in museum and ecclesiastical collections. Many surviving examples have unfortunately become separated from their original ewers or basins; consequently, the survival of the present two components together is of particular significance.

The set belongs to the long-established Ottoman tradition of the İbrik ve Leğen, the ewer and basin employed for pouring water over the hands before and after meals, for personal washing and, where appropriate, ablution. Unlike certain Persian washing services incorporating a separate pierced strainer or draining element, the Ottoman arrangement was characteristically conceived as a two-piece ensemble, with the ewer resting directly within the basin.

Both vessels are formed from the characteristic creamy-white Kütahya fritware body and painted beneath the transparent glaze with freely executed floral and vegetal decoration. Scrolling branches, stylised blossoms and saz-inspired leaves are vigorously outlined in black and enlivened principally with emerald green and small touches of yellow.

The drawing possesses the spontaneous, almost calligraphic quality associated with eighteenth-century Armenian Kütahya production. Closely related freely painted vegetal ornament occurs on contemporary Kütahya Easter eggs, gülâbdans (rosewater sprinklers), mataras (pilgrim flasks), coffee cups, bowls and other domestic and ecclesiastical vessels.

Of particular interest are the surviving brown henna-coloured pigment accents applied to selected areas of the rims, foot, handle, spout and raised details. These appear visually and technically distinct from the principal black, green and yellow underglaze decoration and seem to have been applied over the glaze.

Comparable use of brown and henna-coloured surface pigments can be encountered on Ottoman ceramics, including later Çanakkale wares. It therefore remains possible that these brown accents represent a secondary decorative intervention rather than part of the original Kütahya decorative scheme. Their precise date of application cannot presently be established with certainty, and they should consequently be considered separately from the principal black, green and yellow underglaze decoration.

A particularly important decorative comparison is provided by the Kütahya sahan, Cairo, inv. no. 6285, with freely drawn black-outlined vegetal ornament and green and yellow colouring provide a close parallel for the principal underglaze decoration of the present set.

Complete eighteenth-century Kütahya İbrik ve Leğen ensembles are considerably rarer than individual surviving ewers and basins. The preservation of the present two-piece service is therefore particularly significant, retaining both the decorative relationship between the vessels and the original visual and functional conception of the Ottoman hand-washing set.

The elegant Ottoman form, characteristic Armenian-Kütahya decoration, unusual brown henna-coloured surface accents and rare survival of the corresponding basin make the present ensemble an important example of late eighteenth-century Ottoman Kütahya ceramic production.