Issue 36 2023 - Journal - Page 61
around 100.000 pounds. It also adds that the Ottoman
display needed a space of 5.000 square meters within the
Exhibition.
According to the newspaper, on Tuesday, Cemaleddin
Pasa and Mustafa Pasa visited the Southampton mayor
in his official residence in Winchester. A few senior
officers from the frigate and the Ottoman Ambassador H.
D. Jourdain and his wife also accompanied the two pashas.
In Winchester they visited the noteworthy sites including
the cathedral and the college, expressing their appreciation after the visit. Later the group had a sensational
“dejeuner a la fourchet”e in the mayor’s residence. They
first toasted to the health of her Majesty the Queen, and
then to Sultan Abdülmecid. Admiral Mustafa Pasa talked
on behalf of Turkish officers and expressed his gratitude
and pleasure for the warm welcome they received and for
the kind hospitality of the mayor.
The Linooln, Rutland, and Stamford Mercury newspaper,
published in Stamford also wrote on the Turkish frigate,
in a piece dated Friday, 2 May. Giving the news that the
frigate carries 3000 goods in 207 packages, the article
mentions their content: silk and gold embroidered fabrics
from Bursa, Albania and several other Turkish towns,
magnificent examples of dresses, silk woven fabrics and
capes, fire arms, carpets and shawls; beautiful and interesting examples of manufacturing using roots, leaves and
flowers of Turkey. The article also adds that a golden embellished and magnificently decorated carrying sled and
a rowboat to showcase the dexterity of their boats and the
skills of their rowers on the Serpentine were also included.
In the same article the newspaper also reports that the
mayor, a few members of the city council, city delegates,
the town clerk and members of the press paid a return
visit to the Turkish frigate. The group was welcomed by
two Turkish officers in naval uniforms of the Ottoman
navy and other officers of the frigate. Later the mayor and
his entourage made the town clerk read the speech that
was accepted in the special city council meeting a week
earlier. Copies of the speech written on parchment were
gifted to the pashas. Mustafa Paşa, as a response to the
speech, thanked the way in which he was honored by the
visit of the Southampton municipality. On behalf of Cemaleddin Paşa and the rest of the officers of the frigate
he also expressed his gratitude for the help that was given
in the quick offloading of the goods that came for the
Great Exhibition. He also praised the comfort of the
Southampton shipyard and the harbor which is ‘very easy
to enter and exit’. After these speeches, the Turkish band
on the deck played ‘God Save the Queen’ and the frigate
fired a royal gun salute. The visitors were offered Eastern
tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, coffee and sweet sherbet.
Twenty one gun salutes were fired honoring the Sultan.
The band continued to play war songs as the visitors were
given a tour of the frigate. According to the newspaper,
before his departure from the frigate, the mayor was presented with a gift: a long and valuable Turkish pipe or chibouque that was embellished with diamonds. The mayor
and his entourage left the frigate very content for the sincere and warm treatment by the Ottoman delegation and
again with gun salutes.
The pavillion dedicated for Ottoman products, was visited by several visitors, chief among them was Queen Victoria. Especially appreciated were the variety and quality
present among agricultural and handcraft products. Towards the end of the exhibition, 3.088 medallions were
awarded, 170 of which were bigger prizes. These medallions were awarded based on certain criteria such as the
innovation, creativity, costs and economy, sturdiness,
beauty of the form, perfection of the craftsmanship, appropriateness, adaptation of old principles to new forms,
validity and precision. The catalogue of the Great Exhibition has the full list of all the products and engravings
of some significant pieces. Among the Ottoman products
A silver embroidered saddlery, a finely embellished carrying sled and a valuable waterpipe was appreciated.
Among the products sent to the exhibition there is also a
locally made ‘skeleton watch’ where one could see all the
internal bits.
Mehmed Rauf, an Ottoman bureaucrat who was a clerk
in a high level office inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
joined the 1851 London Great Exhibition as well. In this
trip to and from London, he visited fifty cities in four
months. He wrote his experience in his Seyahatname-i
Londra (London Travel Diary). He underlines how
crowded London is and that the exhibition was part of
the daily chatter across town and a very popular topic
among locals. He headed towards the Serpentine Lake
using a vehicle called ‘cab’ that had four wheels and was
like a box with two square holes, the driver at a level behind and above the passenger. This area reminded him of
Kagıthane in Istanbul. In his writings, he adds that every
country had a display area, Ottomans products were in
the middle, next to the place leading to the second floor,
decorated with Sultan Abdülmecid’s tughra. He also
states that there were fire arms and Albanian clothing and
that everything was very well organized.
The Bath Chronicle, a weekly newspaper from Bath, just
159 kms to the west of London, in an article titled as ‘The
Great Exhibition’, 1 May 1851, reports that Vice Admiral
Mustafa Pasa and Captain Salih Bey reached Spithead on
Friday night. The rest of the article give details about the
Ottoman frigate, with a crew of 320 men, including Turkish
officers, sailors, fire fighters, and 3 British engineers. According to the article, the Ottoman products included silk
goods from state factories, Turkish textiles, swords and
knifes, fire arms, embroidered goods, carpets from
Menemen and Konya; they all were things of beauty and
value and they were 4.870 different products, worth of
Among the Ottoman products, textile goods received a
lot of attention with their unique designs and different
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