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The Sadberk Hanim Museum
(tel
+90 (212) 242 3813), Piyasa Caddesi
27-29, on the shore road in Büyükdere
just south of Sariyer on
the Bosphorus
in Istanbul, is a privately-funded
museum founded by the Koç family,
one of Turkey's richest. It's open
daily except Wednesday from 10:00
am to 17:00 (5 pm).
The museum holds not only the family's
heirloom collection of Ottoman
art and furnishings, but also Anatolian
antiquities and Islamic
art.
It is a gem of an
institution, established
in an old waterfront villa and new
museum buildings.
The villa, once
the summer residence of Manuk
Azaryan Efendi, an Ottoman
Armenian who was Speaker of the upper
house of the
Ottoman parliament,
has been beautifully restored and
now serves as the Art History section
of the museum.
Exhibits include coins,
Islamic art, Ottoman artifacts,
costumes,
and ethnographic items:
tespih (worry beads) of
solid gold; golden, bejewelled
tobacco
boxes and
watches (one bears the sultan's monogram
in diamonds); beautiful Kütahya
pottery; even a table that once belonged
to Napoleon (he's pictured on it, surrounded
by his generals).
A number of rooms
in the great old house have been
arranged and decorated in Ottoman style
- the
style of the ruling class, obviously.
There's a sumptuous maternity
room with
embroidered cloth and lots of lace,
a salon with all the paraphernalia
of the Ottoman Turkish
coffee ceremony,
and
a third set up as a circumcision room.
A display case holds a fine collection
of Ottoman spoons (the prime dining
utensil) made from tortoiseshell,
ebony,
ivory and other precious materials.
The Sevgi Gönül
Building is a modern addition
for the museum's Archeological
section, featuring artifacts
from Anatolia's many civilizations,
including Ionic, Hellenic and Hellenistic,
Roman and Byzantine, dating
from as early as the 6th century
BC.
There
is also a well-chosen collection of Chinese
celadon ware from the 14th to 16th centuries, later Chinese
blue-and-white porcelain, and some 18th-century
Chinese porcelain made specifically for the Ottoman market.
If you come to Sariyer on a Bosphorus
cruise ferry, look
to the left as you leave the dock for
a yellow
wooden
house
on the shore road about 300 metres
to the south - that's the museum.
Plaques are in Turkish and English throughout
the museum. A cafe and gift
shop are
at your service.
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