Rare and Important Ottoman Tombak Water Flask

Project Details

Rare and Important Ottoman Tombak Water Flask

Ottoman Empire
Height: 27cm.
16^th-17^th Century

Of deep baluster shape, raising in two small, curved shoulders with suspension loops and terminating in a narrow facetted cylindrical neck, with short, curved spout on one side, resting on a short, splayed foot ring, decorated with large engraved palmette medallions with stippled ground, filled and surrounded with scrolling floral patterns.

This water flask was designed to mirror the shape of traditional leather flasks carried in the Ottoman Empire whilst travelling or during military campaigns. This piece’s engravings, consisting of a stippled ground decorating palmette cartouches and dotted outlines used to form arabesques, were most likely intended to imitate stitchings on grained leather.

The form was even repeated in ceramic, as attested by Iznik pottery water flasks.

Tombak, the technique whereby a gilt and mercury amalgam is applied to copper, and burnt off, leaving gold fused to the substrate, was very much prized in Ottoman times. According to teachings [hadith] of Prophet Muhammad, the use of gold in daily objects represented extravagance and wastefulness. For this reason tombak (gilt copper) was regarded as a legitimate alternative to gold in elite circles.

While it originated on the plains of Central Asia as the water flask of horsemen, the present water flask suggests the prestige and sophistication this object achieved under the Ottomans. This is a refined example of a type of vessel that was used by the Ottoman ruling elite during the 16th century. Its form is similar to that of the water flasks produced for court circles in the reign of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (r.1520-1566). Supreme among all Ottoman water flasks is the gold vessel which survives in Topkapi Saray Treasury (inv. no. 2/3825, please see Esin Atil, The Age of Suleyman the Magnificent, 1987, p.123). Overlaid with flowers and set with fabulous jewels, this was a royal commission made for Sultan Suleyman. The flask held the Sultan’s drinking water and was carried in court processions. Following this, comes a flask of gilded and appliquéd leather, presented around 1590 by Sultan Murad III (r.1574-1595) to the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (r.1576-1612), now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (inv. no. C.28).

The present water flask’s incising technique and floral motifs compare with some of the highest quality Ottoman metalwork of the sixteenth century, when metalwork attained remarkable opulence and refinement. One of these comparable pieces is a 16^th century Ottoman tombak lidded jug in the Düsseldorf Kunst Museum (inv. no. 16160). Please see, Nazan Ölçer, “Türkische Metallkunst”, Türkische Kunst und Kultur aus Osmanischer Ziet, vol. II, Verlag Aurel Bongers Recklinghausen, 1985, p. 290.

The decoration of the present piece is closely related to that of Iznik ceramics produced in the second half of the 16^thcentury. The branches with spring blossoms, for example, are repeated on the lunettes of the mihrab wall, in the Takkeci Ibrahim Aga Mosque, Istanbul, built in 1591/1592. Please see, Arlı, Belgin Demirsar et al. Tiles – Treasures of Anatolian Soil – Ottoman Period, Kale Group Publications, Istanbul, 2008, pp. 263-264, Figs. 299, 301.

There are two similar Ottoman tombak water flasks in museum collections which are closely related to the present piece. The first is in the British Museum (inv. no. 1897,0320.1), published in Julian Raby & James Allan, “Le Métal”, L’art Décoratif Ottoman – Tulipes, Arabesques et Turbans, ed. Yanni Petsopoulos, Denoël, 1982, p. 35, dated to the 16^thcentury. Please see the link, https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1897-0320-1

The second one is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. no. 1984.100) – published in S. C. Welch, The Islamic World, New York, 1987, p.125 – is dated to the 17th century. Please see the link, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/453238

Flasks of this form were presented as diplomatic gifts. A leather flask in similar form, dated to the first half of the 17th century and embellished with silver, gold and precious stones, travelled to Russia, where it was presented to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich by Tsarevich Seid-Burkhan Arsalanovich in 1653 (inv. no. TK-2882, see Levykin, A., The Tsars and the East: Gifts from Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin, Washington, D.C., 2009, pp. 66-7). These imperial gifts indicate the significance of these water flasks in the eyes of the Ottoman elite. A further example is in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. no. SKAZsz 2270, please see, the cover of the exhibition catalogue War & Peace: Ottoman-Polish Relations in the 15th-19th centuries, Istanbul, 1999). And lastly, two more recorded examples are in the Furusiyya Foundation Collection (inv. nos. R-731 and R-733, please see, Bashir Mohamed, The Arts of the Muslim Knight: The Furusiya Art Foundation Collection, 2007, pp. 280-1).

Categories: Metalwork & Woodwork
Credits: Ex-Private French Collection

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Rare and Important Ottoman Tombak Water Flask

Enquiries