The sudden blossoming of a new decorative style on ceramic shapes in early 18th c. Kütahya needs some explaining. An attempt will be made at showing origins of designs by looking into Chinese, Persian, Indian and European influences. The presence of Armenian merchants on the Eurasian scene is not foreign to such influences on Kütahya potters a number of whom were certainly Armenian.

Dr. Yolande Crowe is an independent scholar and lecturer on the ceramics and architecture of the world of Islam. For a number of years she has concentrated on cross-cultural exchanges across Eurasia. She is a regular contributor to international congresses and publications on Persian, Turkish and South Asian arts. The author of Les arts de l’Islam, Brussels 1976 and Persia and China, the blue and white Safavid ceramics in the V&A, Geneva 2002, she has almost completed work on an important private collection of Kütahya ceramics.

Admission: £10

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