Kutahya Flask - Mail Figure Smoking a Long Pipe

Armenian flask (Kutahya) dated from the second half of the 18th century. Representation of a mail figure in traditional clothing smoking a long stemmed pipe. The sides are decorated with needle-leafed branches while the perimeter of the flask is decorated with flowering branches. Such flasks and/or plates were mainly addressed for European buyers.
The oldest Kutahya ceramics, an example of tiles dated (1718/9) , were a special order for the restoration of the church of the Holy Sepulcher within the Old City of Jerusalem (also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians). These pictorial tiles depict a series of scenes from the Old and New Testament with an inscription in Armenian. (Last Supper and Holly Women at the empty Tomb – Etchmiadzin chapel, St. James Cathedral, Armenian Patriarchate, Jerusalem).