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Ottoman patchwork

We have just been in Istanbul and visited the Topkapi Palace again. There's an exhibit at the moment in the building nominally devoted to the Sultans' costumes which has a few silk patchworks. Most were of only historical interest, but the two to the right of the door as you go in were good, particularly the Central-Asian-style one built up out of one basic block, half an equilateral triangle with stripes (about 8 of them) running at right angles to the diagonal, the whole block being about two inches high - the effect the setting produced was similar to the stripes often done in ribbon in Uzbek and Kirghiz clothing. In this case they made strange hexagonal maze shapes, not much like the generic "Islamic tiles" you see in so many books. They came from another tradition entirely, presumably the pre-Islamic Turkic steppe.

We couldn't find any book in either English or Turkish devoted to Ottoman patchwork, the ogre on duty won't allow any photos, and I didn't have a notebook and a set of coloured pencils to draw these properly. Anybody seen these reproduced anywhere? Or anyone visiting soon and want to try a discreet picture with their flash turned off?

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Reply to
Jack Campin - bogus address
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I don't think I'll be in Istanbul soon. But those textile pieces sound interesting. What takes you there so frequently? Family? Or just a favorite place to visit? It sounds intriguing! I doubt Turkey would be very high on my places to visit list....but that's probably due to my ignorance of its riches. I'm also not much of an adventurer....though maybe I'd be interested more if it were included in a tour of some sort. Yes, yes, I know what you'll probably say Jack.....you don't strike me as the tour type. :-) You know all the side streets and vendors where no tour guide has ever ventured. That's cool. Do you speak the language?

Reply to
KJ

Favourite place. I decided more than 25 years ago that it would be a good idea to get to know a (then) not-very-familiar country quite well. Lots of British people "specialize" in France, Spain or Italy in the same way.

It would be quite easy for a tour guide to include this stuff. If you find a map of the old city, draw a ring that goes from the Aya Sofya to the European train station to the ferry dock to the Grand Bazaar. What's inside that ring is solidly fabric-related businesses, most of it only five minutes' walk from the tourist route. It takes a certain kind of tourist to take an interest in a streetful of buttons or a vast grotty

1920s seven-storey building devoted entirely to men's clothing small- factory outlets, laid out like the human body with socks in the basement and hats in the attic, but given the demand, "no problem" as tourist- industry Turks like to say.

Enough to do quite a lot, but a sense of geography matters more here. And the language of getting potential customers to part with their money when presented with a wall of washing-instruction labels on the roll is international.

Topkapi is easy to negotiate. Everything is labelled in English and there are guidebooks in all major European languages and Japanese. There are hundreds of tourists from all over the world in it all the time.

We came back with the darnedest-looking duffel bag - heavy and hard at the bottom (serger cones of stripey and metallic decorative thread, yes there are shops that sell nothing else), a soft lump in the middle (a kilogram of henna), hard flat shapes above that (rolls of decorative woven ribbon), and something squishy at the top (fabric).

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ============== Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760 for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975 stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557

Reply to
Jack Campin - bogus address

Have you cultivated some friendships with people who live there? DH and DS just got back from a week+ trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. Over the past

10+ years, we have made some very good friends there who treat us like family when DH visits. Having someone who lives there to "hang" with makes the visit even richer. I'll have to save your message about the geography of Istanbul.....just in case I need it sometime! I'd love to see the stores!
Reply to
KJ

Sounds wonderful -couldn't you draw a bit from memory? I've only been to Istanbul once, loved it, would go back in a flash! Roberta in D

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Reply to
Roberta Zollner

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