A Kutahya Polychrome Rose-Water Bottle Decorated with a Bird in Flight, Ottoman Empire, late 19th – early 20th century

Vibrant with colour and movement, this elegant rose-water bottle exemplifies the late Ottoman revival of Iznik ceramic traditions, in which historic floral motifs were reinterpreted with folkloric exuberance. Of slender, elongated neck and rounded body, the vessel is richly painted in a lively palette of cobalt blue, turquoise, apple green, bole red and soft yellow, the whole outlined in black beneath a clear crackled glaze. A brilliantly coloured songbird, wings outstretched in mid-flight, sweeps across one side of the body amid scrolling saz leaves and stylised blossoms, its plumage rendered with a spirited hand that animates the entire composition.

The neck is encircled with zoned bands of alternating foliage and dotted motifs, recalling the repertory of 16th-century Iznik ornament yet articulated here with the distinctive, more playful character associated with Kutahya workshops in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such bottles — known as gulabdan — were used for scented waters in both domestic and ceremonial settings, and often served as showpieces of a household’s taste and refinement.

The present example is notable for the charm and rarity of its avian subject, a motif favoured by Kutahya artisans during the period but executed here with unusual vitality. The soft craquelure of the glaze enhances its historic texture and reinforces its place within the wider narrative of Ottoman ceramic revivalism, where memory, craftsmanship and decorative imagination converge.