AN OTTOMAN GILT-COPPER (TOMBAK) BOZALIK (BOZA EWER), TURKEY, DATED 1194 AH/1780 AD

A large container şerbetlik or bozalık, the bulbous body on a splayed foot, rising from a flaring foot to a domed lid, the body and lid finely engraved lappet border to the base and floral border around the waist, the lid topped with a flower bud.
Engraved with the text " the honorable mother of sultan Suleyman III, felicitous woman named muteber Kadin, dated 1194AH ". Height: 34 cm.

Purchased by Kunstzalen A. Vecht in Amsterdam in August 1958. Original invoice is available.

CATALOGUE NOTE
Monumental and sculptural, this bozalik would have been used to serve the fermented grain beverage known as boza. Produced in gilt-copper 'tombak' and featuring a ribbon-like design with flowers reminiscent of a Europeanised decorative repertoire, such a vessel would have impressed in an elegant Ottoman household. Few models survive, with a comparable example in the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum:
Şerbetlik, Turkish and Islamic Art Museum, inv. 4220 (Tombak, Golden Grace, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 2018, p.26).
Şerbetlik, late 18th centur, Nezih Barut Collection (Tombak, Golden Grace, exhibition catalogue, Istanbul, 2018, p.24).
Ader Picard Tajan, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 8 and 9 November 1989, lot 381.
Sotheby’s, London, 27 October 2020, lot 491.