Traditional bridal/festive costume - Adapazarı / Turkey. Late-Ottoman. - Photos

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Traditional bridal/festive costume - Adapazarı / Turkey. Late-Ottoman.

Posted by Jean-Marie Criel on February 20, 2016 at 5:55pm

Traditional bridal/festive ensemble (‘şalvar’/baggy trousers + ‘cepken’/long-sleeved vest) from the Adapazarı province. Late-Ottoman style, circa 1900. Adorned with goldwork embroidery (‘Maraş işi’) on silk satin. Trousers and vest were purchased in Bursa in 1990. (Kavak Costume Collection - Antwerpen/Belgium).

Comments

Lynn Ardent February 20, 2016 at 5:58pm

Fantastic ensemble. I am so happy you are posting here because references for folk jewelry from Turkey are very thin. For some reason the near provinces (Greece, Bulgaria, Syria) are better documented than Anatolia, at least in English. Can you tell us more about the tube amulet she is wearing and where it is from?
Jean-Marie Criel February 20, 2016 at 11:10pm

Hello Lynn,

The amulet necklace was an item from a heap of jewelry ‘from the Russians’ (which in this case means: from the Caucasus & Central Asia) that we bought from an ‘eskici’ (second class antique seller) in Istanbul in 1995, after the ex-Soviet borders had been opened and Turkey found itself flooded with tens of thousands of former Soviet citizens, who came to sell on the Turkish flea markets everything they were able to transport. (The largest item I saw were several 8 meters long inflatable rubber dinghies, probably from an old or unguarded army stock…).

Research at home brought me to the conclusion that this piece could be Karakalpak, or maybe Türkmen (from northern Afghanistan). The chains and the dangles correspond to both possibilities. As to the box itself: I could not find similar references; I noticed that some Karakalpak jewelry are without set glass paste/ stones – which is rare for Türkmen jewels. That’s why my first choice/guess would be: Karakalpak.

What is your opinion? I posted a picture (with close-ups) of the necklace on my page to-day.

With kind regards, JM.
Lynn Ardent February 21, 2016 at 6:38am

Jean-Marie, what an exciting treasure hunt you are describing in the 'eskici' shops in the 1990s. Thank you for sharing the stories... I love the picture of the USSR army stock winding up in Turkish second hand shops!!

I agree with Angelo from the other posting... I think these are from somewhere in the Levant or Iran or nearby, they turn up frequently in auctions from Israel and are too numerous to be Karakalpak. I will look again in my references but I don't think they are in Kalter's book on Syria or any of the Palestinian books. By process of elimination I am thinking Iran, another place that does not have good documentation of folk jewelry outside of Turkoman tribes. Thank you for sharing your stories.