Large 4to. 208 pp., [1], profusely illustrated in colour plates throughout, portrait frontis, publisher’s pictorial original wrappers, biblio, glossary, index, New, Sadberk Hanım Museum, Istanbul, 2006.

Synopsis

An exhibition catalogue. The Sevi Gonul Collection of ecclesiastical silver, which is now housed in the Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul, comprises sixty-five objects manufactured in Istanbul over a two-hundred year period, from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. The majority of the objects in the Collection is intended for liturgical use, but there is also a small, distinctive group decorated with with secular themes inspired from Antique mythology. Whether liturgical or secular, the iconographic composition of these objects emerges from a rich ornamental context of floral, vegetal and animal motifs drawn from contemporary artistic trends in western Europe. This particular assembly offers fascinating evidence for the diverse artistic and cultural milieu of Istanbul in the late Ottoman period.