Ewer with its basin and gilded copper soap dish (tombak). - Lot 185

Ewer with its basin and gilded copper soap dish (tombak). Beautiful ewer with pear-shaped body and ringed neck, handle and serpentiform spout. The lid is sur_x0002_monted with a floral grip, the body and the lid decorated with wavy floral stems. The openwork grid is decorated with lotus bud motifs in red copper, in reserve on a gilded background. The basin is chased with a frieze of floral stems. (Gilding partially worn in places). Turkey, Ottoman period, 18th century. Total height : 43 cm ; Height of ewer : 33 cm ; Diameter of basin : 37 cm ; Height of ewer : 9 cm. Basin: 9 cm; Diam. grid: 22.5 cm. Provenance: Algiers first half of the 20th century, then France from 1962. "Tombak" is the name of the technique of gilding with mercury on red copper used under the Ottomans and which developed a lot in the 18th century. The use of gold tableware was not considered suitable and a large number of utilitarian objects were therefore made of gilded copper (tombâq), as evidenced by the kitchens of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. See Gündag Kayaoglu, Tombak, Disbank Publishing, Istanbul, 1992, for a study of the Ottoman tombak. Two almost identical ewers were offered at Sotheby's at London, Arts of the Islamic World, 25 October 2017, lot 158 and 23 October 2019, lot 287. An Ottoman gilt-copper (tombak) lidded ewer, with associated basin and filter. Turkey, 18th century. Provenance: Algiers, first half 20th century and France since 1962. Two nearly identical ewers were offered for sale at Sotheby's in London on 25 October 2017, lot 158 and 23 October 2019, lot 287.