As a result of Iznik, Kütahya, and Çanakkale ceramics reaching the Aegean and Mediterranean coastal countries, ceramics, tiles, and porcelains decorated with similar Ottoman motifs—such as flowers, leaves, and rosettes resembling these ceramics—appeared and were produced in local workshops across a wide geography extending from the Greek islands, Athens, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, and Crete to the Balkan countries, and from Hungary to Italy, Spain, France, Germany, England, the Netherlands, and Belgium. While some of these were made in the same centuries as Iznik, Kütahya, and Çanakkale examples, others continued to be produced up to the present day as a result of developments in trade and tourism. While we frequently observe examples of these interaction products bearing Ottoman-style floral and vegetal patterns and similar designs, ship-motif examples are relatively rare. Ship-motif examples are observed more frequently from the first quarter of the 20th century onward, after the Greek population exchange, particularly in the Greek islands, Athens (in the Benaki Museum, the Museum of Folk Art, and the Zachos and Chatzimichali collections), Thessaloniki, and Rhodes. These ceramics were produced in workshops established by Anatolian Greeks who migrated from Anatolia as part of the population exchange. The most diverse examples consist of ceramics influenced by our port city of Çanakkale, sending greetings to us from the neighboring islands, the Peloponnese, and Rhodes.
The most famous foreign imitator of Iznik tiles was the French ceramist Théodore Deck, who developed his technique in the Sèvres workshops and established his own workshop in Paris in 1856. Especially after the 1860s, although not always very successful, he extensively imitated Iznik ceramics and tiles and received commissions. Another French ceramist who followed the Iznik fashion, Émile Samson, was more successful in the limited number of imitations he produced in his workshop near Paris, signing the undersides with the Arabic letter “S,” the initial of his name. A mug signed “Samson,” decorated with galleys and housed in the Ömer M. Koç Collection in Istanbul, closely resembles a pair of mugs in the Kuyaş Collection. Even the “Z” letters decorating the handle are identical. In the Netherlands, the van Straaten workshop, and in Belgium, the Villerot et Boche workshops, although producing lower-quality imitations than the French workshops, nevertheless produced items that sustained the Iznik tradition in Europe.
One of the countries where imitation examples are abundant is Italy. Iznik-imitation ceramics produced by the Florentine Ulisse Cantagalli from 1878 onward are recognized by the distinctive rooster emblem on their undersides.
In 1880, the tile and ceramic factory established by Miklós Zsolnay in Pécs, Hungary, became renowned for products decorated with various Ottoman-style floral and vegetal patterns, influenced by tiles brought from the Near East and Anatolia.
Examples influenced by Iznik and Kütahya are more widespread in the field of ceramics than tiles. For example, on the back of a plate produced in Rhodes in the style of Iznik ceramics, the inscription “Kütahya Handmade In Greece 507 Rhodian Pottery” appears. In addition to plates, we also observe that Iznik- or Kütahya-like examples such as vases and ewers were produced in local workshops, particularly in Rhodes.
Under the influence of Çanakkale ceramics, a wide-rimmed shallow bowl decorated using the sgraffito technique—accepted as having been made on the island of Sifnos in Greece—features a galleon motif. It is formed with incised brown lines beneath a transparent glaze on a cream-colored slip (Öney Gönül, “Ottoman Ceramics Embracing the Mediterranean and Their Reflections Reaching the Present Day,” pp. 77–85).
