TURKEY, LATE 19TH CENTURY

As European craftsmanship imports increased in Ottoman Turkey over the 19th and early 20th centuries, western European manufactories started to produce items for the Turkish market (Vernoit, 1997, pp. 173-176). Cigarette cases such as the present lot were popular accessories for the Ottoman nineteenth century gentleman. Sultan Abdulhamid II’s own appreciation of jewelled objects was well-documented in the Paris sale at the Galerie Georges Petit, 27 November 1911 (Perles, Pierreries, Bijoux et objets d’arts précieux, Le tout ayant appartenu à S.M. le Sultan Abd-Ul-Hamid II, Paris, 1911). The sale included a number of similarly diamond-set cigarette cases bearing his tughra. For another cigarette case with a diamond-set tughra of Sultan Abdulhamid II, see lot 9 in this sale.