Influence of Iznik, Kütahya and Canakkale Ceramics with Ship Depictions Observed on European Ceramics
Reaching the lands around the Aegean and Mediterranean, the Iznik, Kütahya and Çanakkale ceramics influenved a vast geography. Similar porcelains, tiles and ceramics decorated with various flowers, leaves, rosettes etc. and resembling Ottoman motifs were produced at local workshops in Aegean islands, Athens, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Crete, Balkan countries, Hungary, Italy, Spain, France and Germany, England, Holland and Belgium. Some were produced during the same centuries as the Iznik, Kütahya and Çanakkale examples, while some others have survived to the present due to the development of trade, tourism and globalization. The products of this interaction are especially evident in the examples with ship depictions are less frequent. Examples with ship depictions are found on Greek islands, Rhodes and in Athens (Benaki Museum, Handicrafts Museum, Zachos and Chatzimichali Collections) and Thessaloniki, especially from the period after the Turkish-Greek population exchange of 1924. These were produced at the workshops established by the Rum origin Anatolians who settled there after the population exchange. The greatest variety is observed in the ceramics influenced from Çanakkale which salute us from neigboring islands, Morea and Rhodes.
The most famous foreign artists imitating works of Iznik was the Frenchman Theodore Deck, who excelled his technique at Serves workshops and established his own wokshop in Paris in 1856. Although his production after 1860s were not much successful but he imitated Iznik ceramics and tiles and continued to receive orders. Another French ceramicist following the Iznik trend was Emile Samson (1837-1913), who produced successful imitations, though few in number, and who signed under the plate with the letter sin in Arabic for his initial. A tankard by Samson, now in Ömer M. Koç Collection in Istanbul, is decorated with galleys and closely resembles the pair of tankards at the Kuyaş Collection. The letters ‘Z’ on the handle are also the same. Van Straaten in the Netherlands, Villeroy et Boche in Belgium continued the Iznik imitation works in Europe but of lesser quality than those in France.
Another country with plenty of imitations was Italy. Iznik imitation ceramics produced by Ulise Cantagalli of Florence as of 1878 are recognized with the special rooster emblem on their base.
The ceramics and tile factory founded by Miklos Zsolnay in Pecs, Hungary, in 1880 gained fame with its products decorated with Ottoman style floral designs influenced by tiles he brought from the Near East and Anatolia.
Examples influenced by Iznik and Kütahya cover mostly ceramics rather than tiles. For examples, on the back of a dish produced in Iznik style but the Rhodes is written ‘Kutahya Handmade In Greece 507 Rhodian Pottery’. In addition to dishes, Rhodian workshops also produced vases and pitchers resembiling Iznik and Kütahya Ceramics.
Th deep dish with wide rim, thought to have been produced at Siphnos islands of Greece under the influence of Çanakkale ceramics, is decorated with galleon in the center rendered with engraved brown lines in sgraffito technique under a clear glaze ( Öney Gönül, Ottoman Ceramics Embracing The Mediterranean and Their Reflections To The Present, p.77-85).