Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)

Emese PÁSZTOR - Márta TÓTH - Anikó PATAKI - Andrea VÁRFALVI: Turkish Cases from the Esterházy Treasury

the Turks in the second half of the seventeenth century and at the end of that century.

7 The 'Türkenbeute' (Turkish war booty) collection at the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe holds sets of leather cases of this type that are modestly embellished using silver-gilt wire embroidery,

8 and (in places) appliqué fashioned from silver-gilt sheeting.

9 Cases of this kind were seized as war booty by King John Sobieski III of Poland (1629-1696) at Vienna in 1683.

10 Of the same type is the set of black leather cases embroidered with skófium that passed into the Esterházys' collection at the castle of Fraknó (today: Forchtenstein, Austria)." The last-mentioned set was probably one of the spoils of war acquired by Pál Esterházy (1635-1713) during his military career. On the basis of their working, most of the Turkish cases that have survived in Turkish spoils of war ensembles in Europe can likewise be assigned to the 'everyday' category, but compared to cases with ' embroidered on sharkskin', appliqué or tacks they have a finish that is more decorative and more costly. Their front side was made from leather richly embroidered using skófium.

1

2 Costlier variants were covered in velvet embroidered in 1. Three bow-cases formerly in the Batthydny-Strattmann collection at Körmend (which featured as no. 2865, 2955, 2859 at the Millennial Exhibition, from left to right). All three Ottoman Turkish, seventeenth century (Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, Archive, Inv. photonegative. 2183) 72