Iznik Dish
Title: Iznik Dish
Date: 1570-1575
Medium: Stone-paste painted under transparent glaze
Credit Line: Smithsonian Institution (F1966.25)
This beautiful dish was produced in the legendary kilns at Iznik, southeast of Istanbul, which were renowned for producing some of the finest dishes and pottery in the world during the Ottoman period. While this dish is too rare and expensive to eat from today, members of wealthy Ottoman families would regularly eat meals from colorful and lavishly decorated Iznik dishes like this one. The methods of producing Iznik ceramics were kept secret, so only Ottoman craftsmen knew how to make them, and they were only produced during the Ottoman empire. Ottomans enjoyed Iznik ceramics as a point of cultural pride and would have shown off their finest Iznik dishes and jugs when they had well-respected guests visiting their homes.