Large Dish

The acquisition of a group of Iznik ceramics by the Musée de Cluny in Paris between 1865 and 1878 became a significant source of inspiration for French ceramicist Théodore Deck, who devoted much of his career to the replication of techniques used to obtain the richness and vivacity of Iznik colours and glazes. A high-quality fritware produced in the Turkish town of Iznik from the late fifteenth to the late seventeenth centuries, these sought-after pieces were adorned with intricate stylized plant motifs in a range of vivid colours under brilliant translucent glazes. Deck’s research would lead him to create his trademark Bleu de Deck, a brilliant glaze composed of soda carbonate, potash and chalk, which fired to a lavish turquoise blue. Although undoubtedly influenced by Iznik colours and motifs, Deck chose to reinterpret, rather than duplicate, their designs, often resulting in a more symmetrical composition than those of the earlier Turkish examples.