Furniture Woodwork From Cairo and
Damascus.
While the changes of fashion in Western, as
contrasted with Eastern countries, are comparatively rapid, the record of
two or three centuries presenting a history of great and well-defined
alterations in manners, customs, and therefore, of furniture, the more
conservative Oriental has been content to reproduce, from generation to
generation, the traditions of his forefathers; and we find that, from the
time of the Moorish conquest and spread of Arabesque design, no radical
change in Saracenic Art occurred until French and English energy and
enterprise forced European fashions into Egypt: as a consequence, the
original quaintness and Orientalism natural to the country, are being
gradually replaced by buildings, decoration, and furniture of European
fashion.
The carved pulpit, from a mosque in Cairo,
which is in the South Kensington Museum, was made for Sultan Kaitbeg,
1468-96. The side panels, of geometrical pattern, though much injured by
time and wear, shew signs of ebony inlaid with ivory, and of painting and
gilding; they are good specimens of the kind of work. The two doors, also
from Cairo, the oldest parts of which are just two hundred years earlier
than the pulpit, are exactly of the same style, and, so far as appearances
go, might be just as well taken for two hundred years later, so
conservative was the Saracenic treatment of decorative woodwork for some
four or five centuries. Pentagonal and hexagonal mosaics of ivory, with
little mouldings of ebony dividing the different panels, the centres of
eccentric shapes of ivory or rosewood carved with minute scrolls, combine
to give these elaborate doors a very rich effect, and remind one of the
work still to be seen at the Alhambra.
The Science and Art Department has been
fortunate in securing from the St. Maurice and Dr. Meymar collections a
great many specimens which are well worth examination. The most remarkable
is a complete room brought from a house in Damascus, which is fitted up in
the Oriental style, and gives one a good idea of an Eastern interior. The
walls are painted in colour and gold; the spaces divided by flat
pilasters, and there are recesses, or cupboards, for the reception of
pottery, quaintly formed vessels, and pots of brass. Oriental carpets,
octagonal tables, such as the one which ornaments the initial letter of
this chapter, hookas, incense burners, and cushions furnish the apartment;
while the lattice window is an excellent representation of the "Mesherabijeh,"
or lattice work, with which we are familiar, since so much has been
imported by Egyptian travellers. In the upper panels of the lattice there
are inserted pieces of coloured glass, and, looking outwards towards the
light, the effect is very pretty. The date of this room is 1756, which
appears at the foot of an Arabic inscription, of which a translation is
appended to the exhibit. It commences—"In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate," and concludes; "Pray, therefore, to Him morning and
evening."
Governor's Palace, Manfalut. Shewing a
Window of Arab Lattice Work, similar to that of the Damascus Room in the
South Kensington Museum.
A number of bosses and panels, detached
from their original framework, are also to be seen, and are good specimens
of Saracenic design. A bedstead, with inlay of ivory and numerous small
squares of glass, under which are paper flowers, is also a good example of
native work.
Specimen of Saracenic Panelling of Cedar,
Ebony, and Ivory. (In the South Kensington Museum.)
The illustration on p. 142 is of a carved
wood door from Cairo, considered by the South Kensington authorities to be
of Syrian work. It shews the turned spindles, which the Arabs generally
introduce into their ornamental woodwork: and the carving of the vase of
flowers is a good specimen of the kind. The date is about the seventeenth
century.
For those who would gain an extended
knowledge of Saracenic or Arabian Art industry, "L'Art Arabe," by
M. Prisse d'Aveunes, should be consulted. There will be found in this work
many carefully-prepared illustrations of the cushioned seats, the
projecting balconies of the lattice work already alluded to, of octagonal
inlaid tables, and such other articles of furniture as were used by the
Arabs. The South Kensington Handbook, "Persian Art," by Major-General
Murdoch Smith, R.E., is also a very handy and useful work in a small
compass.
While discussing Saracenic or Arab
furniture, it is worth noticing that our word "sofa" is of Arab
derivation, the word "suffah" meaning "a couch or place for reclining
before the door of Eastern houses." In Skeat's Dictionary the word is said
to have first occurred in the "Guardian," in the year 1713, and the phrase
is quoted from No. 167 of that old periodical of the day—"He leapt off
from the sofa on which he sat."
A Carved Door of Syrian Work. (South
Kensington Museum.)
From the same source the word "ottoman,"
which Webster defines as "a stuffed seat without a back, first used in
Turkey," is obviously obtained, and the modern low-seated upholsterer's
chair of to-day is doubtless the development of a French adaptation of the
Eastern cushion or "divan," this latter word having become applied to the
seats which furnished the hall or council chamber in an Eastern palace,
although its original meaning was probably the council or "court" itself,
or the hall in which such was held.
Thus do the habits and tastes of different
nations act and re-act upon each other. Western peoples have carried
eastward their civilisation and their fashions, influencing Arts and
industries, with their restless energy, and breaking up the crust of
Oriental apathy and indolence; and have brought back in return the ideas
gained from an observation of the associations and accessories of Eastern
life, to adapt them to the requirements and refinements of European
luxury.
Shaped Panel of Saracenic Work in Carved
Bone or Ivory.