Coffee in Constantinople
24th October 2022
A tiny coffee cup is expected to fetch a six figure sum when it comes up at auction on 3rd November.
The two inch high holder (known as a zarf) is constructed of gold-mounted emeralds and diamonds and would have contained a small glass liner from which coffee could be drunk.
It has come onto the market at Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury for the first time in 40 years and could fetch as much as £100,000.
“This zarf would have been made for the Ottoman market, where coffee drinking was a highly ritualised process. Vessels like this were made in a variety of materials, but this is an exceptionally important and valuable piece, which would have been made for a very wealthy connoisseur,” explained Marielle Whiting, Jewellery specialist at Woolley and Wallis. “The setting of the cup and the way the stones have been cut marks it out as an incredible piece of workmanship. There is a comparable example in the Louvre but very few make it onto the open market.”
The delicate jewelled cup, made in the 19th century, comprises around 100 calibré-cut emeralds and over 200 rose-cut diamonds in a pave setting. It was purchased by the vendor’s family from a London dealer in October 1978 and has not come up for sale since that time.
“The cutting of the stones would have resulted in considerable wastage at the time and so this was made for someone for whom money was no object,” continued Whiting. “It’s likely it would have been made for a member of the Ottoman Court in Constantinople.”
The zarf is a key lot in the two day Fine Jewellery auction at Woolley and Wallis on 2nd and 3rd November. The sale also includes a number of fine sapphires, a fancy purple-pink diamond ring by Leviev, and a single-owner collection of Arts and Crafts jewels by Child & Child.
