Lot 134. A highly important blue and white Iznik pottery charger, Turkey, circa 1480; 44.5cm. diam., 8.3cm. depth. Estimate £300,000 - £500,000. Courtesy Sotheby's.
of large, deep, rounded form, with an everted flat rim, the interior decorated in reserve within a central roundel against a blue-black ground with an intricate arabesque of interlacing split-palmette ‘rumi’ motifs in two shades of blue and white emanating from a small central rosette, the cavetto displaying a thick band of corresponding design surmounted by a thin band of interlocking key fret motifs, the flat rim ornamented with a band of scrolling floral ‘hatayi’ flowers in white, the reverse decorated with a wide band of ‘hatayi’ lotus scrolls in blue on a white ground, thin double blue lines and a single bracketed line embellishing the underside of the rim.
Provenance: Ex-collection Max Debbane (1893-1965), Alexandria, Egypt.
Acquired from Max Debbane’s daughter in 1968.
Private Collection, North America.
Note: The bibliophile and businessman Max Debbane was born into an Syrian-Lebanese family, and was educated in both Alexandria and Paris prior to the First World War. He patronised many leading cultural institutions in the town of his birth including the Greco-Roman Museum and Conservatoire, and was served as President of the Archaeological Society. He was a passionate defender of the archeological heritage of Alexandria to the Society as well as local and foreign scientific publications seeking his collaboration.
Debbane was a friend to the many scholars, writers and artists who both lived in and visited Alexandria in the first half of the twentieth century, including André Gide, Jean Cocteau, P.M. Fraser and Etienne Drioton, among others. He had a great love of books, purchasing widely from both dealers and auctions. After Debbane’s death, much of his library and collection was sold, with the American University in Cairo acquiring several thousand volumes on history and art. He was part of the Debbane family that had previously arrived in Alexandria in the nineteenth century, a member of which – Count Miguel Debbane – founded a Greek Catholic church in Alexandria that remains in use to this day.
"Alexandrians of fifty years ago, who saw this sharply dressed and groomed young man with a short moustache, lavalliere tie and a big black felt hat walking the streets in dark solitude, would never have guessed that beneath a romantic appearance hid a temperament of a chartist and a scholarly vocation." (Cahiers d'Alexandrie, Série IV, fascicule 1, Alexandria, 1966, p.58).
Sotheby's. Arts of the Islamic World, London, October 24, 2018, 10:30 AM