TURKISH BAZAAR
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Gullible's Travels: |
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by Steven Price |
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From Oriental Rug Review, Vol. 15/6 |
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My
wife and I expected to visit Turkey in October 1994, scheduling our
vacation around the Second International Congress on Turkish and Central
Asian Carpets and Kilims. I was to present a talk there, and even
managed to get the organizers to inform me of the acceptance of my
proposed topic. We had to cancel at the last minute.1 After some moaning
and gnashing of teeth, we decided to take another stab at it. We
actually got there this time, starting a two-week visit at the end of
May, 1995. There are a few things about Turkey that are useful to know in making sense of what goes on there. One is that they have serious economic problems. Inflation is severe and the local folks are hard hit by it. The US dollar bought 6,500 lira as recently as 1993; by mid-1995 the exchange rate was about 43,000 to the dollar. There is about 20% unemployment.2 The people have a strong work ethic, and many a shop owner will pay a little money to someone who brings him potential customers. Thus, in the tourist areas, it seems like anyone who can speak even a little English (or German, or French) wants to engage you in conversation and then help you learn a bit about Turkish culture from his friend (or brother, or uncle, or father, or son) who knows all the wonderful things that can be taught by weavings. The streets of the old section of Istanbul where the major tourist sites are located abound with such people. They are friendly, courteous, and helpful to the perpetually lost tourist.3 And, they're interesting folks. BUT, anyone who doesn't want to spend an entire vacation in rug shops has to be firm, insisting that he isn't interested in rugs. Not in seeing them, not in hearing about them, not interested at all. Period. We did stumble once, during our first day in Istanbul, accepting an invitation into a shop for conversation. It took more than an hour to extricate ourselves politely, after looking at a number of (mostly uninteresting) pieces and sipping the ubiquitous apple tea that evidently is believed to be the ultimate weapon in breaking down sales resistance. We recognized that there were dozens of rug shops within sight from nearly any point in the old city and that it wouldn't take too many more such mistakes to totally absorb our vacation time. Still, we are ruggies and we enjoy indulging our neurosis. Most shops deal in new rugs, many made in Turkey but also a large number from India and Pakistan. When we passed anyplace with interesting old pieces in the window, we did peek in. One that caught our eye was Mehmet Cetinkaya's (Maison du Tapis d'Orient, Arasta Bazaar, Istanbul). Of course, Mehmet is very well known in the world of collectors. He had a number of beautiful Uzbek embroideries in his window. Having run a gauntlet of dealers in the Arasta Bazaar before reaching his place, the excuse his window gave us to get in off the street was more than welcome. We were greeted by a nice young man (I'd guess, in his mid-teens) who spoke little English. He showed us a few pieces, and said there was very much more but that only Mehmet himself, who wouldn't be back for another half hour or so, could show them to us. We returned an hour later. Mehmet was in and ready to go to work. The area of his shop is no more than 200 square feet, with only a sofa, a desk, the entrance, and a ladder leading to a loft interrupting stacks of weavings. Mehmet is a tall, lanky man who speaks Turkish and French and very little English. After some preliminary pleasantries and a glass of apple tea, he began spreading Uzbek suzani before us, perhaps 25 or more. None seemed as attractive as the one in his window, and that one was sold. He next disappeared up the ladder and returned with a couple of shopping bags, kneeled before us, and pulled out what must have been at least 50 Uzbek embroideries, including some of the nicest I've seen. Back up the ladder, and down he came with more shopping bags, this time with Kaitag embroideries from Daghestan. At least 50 of these relatively rare textiles, ranging from nice to spectacular, were spread before us. What a feast! More apple tea while he goes back up the ladder. This time he came down with bags full of Ottoman embroideries. Finally, we were ready to talk business. We had set aside three Kaitags, including one for which the word exquisite would be inadequate. These turned out to be a bit too pricy for our budget. Then we talked about two Lakai pieces with glorious colors and designs (Illustrations 1 and 2). These were within our means, and they came home with us. |
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