Calouste Gulbenkian, His Mīnāʾī Ware, and the Changing Islamic Art Market in the Early Twentieth Century

This article aims to provide a clearer understanding of the emerging market for Islamic art in the early decades of the twentieth century through a study of the changing purchasing habits of one European collector, Calouste Gulbenkian, and specifically his acquisition of mīnāʾī ware. Such an approach allows for a coherent, focused study that engages with the leading dealers, agents, and auction houses of the time. These were located primarily in Paris and, to lesser extent, New York and London, in the key period during which the Islamic art market became a major part of the broader art and antiquities business. The main focus is on the shift from buying newly excavated fragmentary material from Armenian dealers to purchasing seemingly complete, but heavily restored, bowls from established collections sold at the leading auction houses. Each of the pieces in Gulbenkian’s collection of mīnāʾī ware is examined in detail, and a new taxonomic classification is presented for this well known, but still poorly understood, class of Islamic ceramics.