OTTOMAN TURKEY, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Georges Zarifi (Georgios Y. Zariphis), was a prominent banker and financier to the Ottoman court during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1842-1918). Zarifi amassed an impressive collection of Ottoman art and received many works of art as gifts from the Sultan himself whose tumultuous reign saw several financial crises.

A similar turban stand is in the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul (M. Kleiterp & C. Huygens, Istanbul: The City and the Sultan, Amsterdam, 2007, no.137, p.137).