Monday, June 8, 2009

I Had to Go and See the Turquoise Myself



This presentation features more than sixty exceptional objects that large embassies, diplomatic missions, and trade delegations from Ottoman Turkey and Safavid Iran offered to the tsars of Russia. Ranging in date from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, these lavish gifts and tributes include rarely seen arms and armor and jeweled ceremonial vessels and regalia intended for the Russian court or the Orthodox church. Some of the finest pieces are equestrian in nature: stirrups with pearls, golden bridles with turquoises and rubies, and saddles covered with velvet and silk.

"The Tsars And The East: Gifts From Turkey and Iran in the Moscow Kremlin," Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Pictures and Text by the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery