Rare Victorian Forum

Victorian "Turkish Corners" and related Middle-Eastern Exotica
Because there seems to be a paucity of information about this obscure Victorian era decorative topic, I thought I would start a message thread and see what other members might want to share or contribute.

Historians have their work cut out for them to determine the origins and causes that led to a popular decorating fad in the last quarter of the 19th century for what is commonly called "Turkish Corners". Although the West has been fascinated with the exotic ancient Middle-East and it's cultural heritage for centuries, that fascination materialized into a fad for Middle Eastern culture during the Victorian era. This fad reached a peak in the 1890's when it seemed almost mandatory for Ameican homeowners to have some area in their home which reflected this keen interest in Moorish-Turkish-Arabian-Middle-Eastern culture or collectively, Islamic decorative arts. Owen Jones, in his 1856 decorative classic, The Grammer of Ornament, used many Moorish design examples. Many illustrations in this colorful volume reflected the Islamic designs Jones found in the Alhambra Moorish Palace in Spain. Jones's book was a Victorian era best-seller going through several editions. In 1848, P.T. Barnum's Moorish Revival "Iranistan" mansion designed by New York architect Leopold Eidlitz was completed. (and burned a few years later)  Phildelphia architect Samuel Sloan incorporated some Moorish designs in his Model Architect book of 1852. (I have an original 1852 copy but Dover Publications has reprinted it in recent years) Perhaps the most famous Victorian era Middle-Eastern or in this case, "Persian" style residence (still standing, fortunately) was built for Hudson River painter Frederick Edwin Church and designed by Calvert Vaux in 1872. Additions and changes were continually made to the house until Church's death in 1900. Olana remains one of the most complete "Moorish" interiors in the U.S.  In 1878, New York socialite Arabella Duval Yarrington Worsham had a room in her Number 4, West 54th street residence redecorated in "Moorish" style for use as a smoking room. The house was later sold to John D. Rockefeller and his son donated it to the Brooklyn Museum before the house was demolished.

Perhaps these design inspiration sources as well as the increasing ability for the American middle and upper classes to travel to far-away exotic locations thanks to steamship travel and the opening of the Suez Canal, (1869)  led to this popularity.

Although period decorative arts sources for creating Turkish Corners or Moorish rooms are hard to find, many period photos show just how popular the fad once was. Take for example the popular Dover publications book Joseph Byron-Photographs of New York Interiors at the Turn of the Century. (1976) In this book, which is made up of photographs taken from the Joseph Byron collection of the Museum of the City of New York from the 1880's until approximately 1912, there are several obvious "Turkish Corners" featured in the images: Fig 13, Reception Room in the Blakely Hall house, 1896, it has an inlaid Moorish tambour table with brass chargers, tassled fringes and over-stuffed seating; Fig. 28 Hall in the Edward Lauterbach House, 1899, it is almost a textbook example of an 1890's  high-style Turkish Corner with inlaid imported Morrocan/ Egyptian funiture; brass Morrocan lamps, chargers and coffee urns; textiles with Arabic inscriptions, and the characteristic heavy stuffed seating. Fig. 35 "Turkish Corner in Mrs.Hughes' Drawing Room., 1899, although truly a "corner" it still features the decorative objects and textiles associated with these corners. An even earlier book, now republished by Dover under the name Opulent Interiors of the Gilded Age was originally published in the early 1880's by William Sheldon. Even in the early 1880's some rooms of the well-to-do were decorated in a Moorish or Middle-Eastern style. Louis Comfort Tiffany's own apartment had a Moorish room and he decorated in the same style for some of his clients.
It seems these "Turkish Corners" were very popular in 1880's and 1890's  Queen Anne style residences and were primarily reserved for the man of the house and/or his friends as a place for them to smoke, drink, and relax informally. Some households had these corners equipped with water pipes (Hookahs) to smoke imported tobacco, drink strong Arabian style coffee, and a place to don a fez, smoking jacket, and Turkish slippers to relax. A few enthusiasts were a bit more literal and even retired there to smoke Hashish, (then legal) but most did not go that far. The Masonic organization, The "Mystic" Shriners, often donned exotic Arabian garb in the Victorian era.

While the exact date when Turkish Corners started to fall out of favor I could not find (an early 1900's source was still endorsing them) for sure, when Ottoman Turkey sided with the German Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I against the allies, the fad was instantly over. By that time, almost all aspects of Victorian culture were also being abandoned and by the 1920's in popular literature, Turkish Corners were synonymous with the ultimate in passe` and being ridiculed. Therefore, due to this period of extreme unpopularity, precious little of these original rooms and corners have survived to the present.

A more recent article from the February 2008 Victorian Homes Magazine by Robyn Davis-Sekula, (Robyn and her preservationist husband Greg, are old friends from my St. Joseph, MO days) is titled:  Under the Exotic Influence and goes into some detail about re-creating a Moorish or Turkish style room. The basic ingredients include Textiles, Furniture, Accessories, and Patterns.

Since one of my personal goals is to work towards re-creating an authentic "Turkish Corner" in my 1889 cottage, perhaps this would be a good place to stop and see what input others might have on this now-obscure Victorian decorating fad. I'll soon repost some photos of pieces I have reserved for creating a "corner" and seek ideas and input from others to create a period correct setting.

I suppose that I am looking for a simple clarification.  On the one hand, we have "Turkish Corners" that appear to have trickled down to the masses during the 1890s.  On the other, we find "Turkish Revival" furniture from as early as the 1870s on through well-past 1900 (up through today, if we are liberal with the definition).  From what I am understanding here, it was common to sprinkle some "Turkish Revival" pieces into a room during the 1880s (much like the Ramsey house in MN at the link below - note the 1880s "Turkish Style" pieces), but it wasn't until after 1893 or so that masses of people created a full-blown "themed" corner or entire room with the more "exotic" styles (the Anlgo-Japanese style being a somewhat less exotic style for the purposes of this discussion).  

Does this seem correct?

http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/54/v54i05p194-209.pdf

- Jason

Cheryl,

It seemed a bit odd that a style, or maybe more accurately, a sub-style that found wide-spread acceptance across the U.S. in the last quarter of the 19th Century, would not have been the subject of some academic study in recent years. Much of the detailed information we now have on furniture makers and the firms they represented has been re-discovered in recent decades and is again available to the general public. Thank you so kindly for sharing the book titles which deal with this rare topic. I will now begin to look for these titles as I seem to have more than a passing interest in the Victorian era "Moorish" style. (of course, I equally appreciate the Aesthetic Movement as well)

Your statement that impetus for the Moorish style originated in the artist community is borne out in the examples you provided. Artists of that era, if successful, did command the attention of the monied class and became the de facto tastemakers of the decorative trends they embraced. Once the monied class adopted a particular style or decorative fad, it was only a matter of time before the Middle-Class followed suit. It might be appropriate to add that the Aesthetic Movement also owed much of it's origin to the English (reform) artist community: John Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, and who could forget, James McNeil Whistler with his iconic 1876 Peacock Room. (as well as several other significant artists) 

I appreciate the two images as well. The 1893 Columbian Exposition Turkish Bazaar offered virtually every decorative accessory a homeowner would need to create a Turkish Corner. I'm sure other importers enjoyed a brisk business during this period as well. The Moses & Sons advertisement also shows all the ingredients for a Turkish Corner were readily available from a single source. Of secondary interest in this particular ad is the announcement that the Marine Corps Band would be playing at that location. Given the date, (1895) I would assume none other than John Phillips Sousa would have been present at the performance. A more incongruous juxtaposition of Sousa and the Marine Corps Band performing at a Turkish Corner outfitter would be difficult to imagine! Wish I could have been there...

Further reading/research shows interest in so-called "Orientalist" art and accessories was popular until the 1930's according to a 1995 master's thesis study by Karina Corrigan. At the heart of any Moorish-Turkish-Orientalist room or corner were paintings, prints and photos used to take people's imaginations away to the exotic Middle-East. In the 19th century, an entire Orientalist school of art developed with several Western artists devoting their work to this style. Contemporary Middle-Eastern art critics have frowned upon these depictions of ancient and 19th Century Middle-Eastern life as seen through Western based artists. Indeed, some of these paintings and other artworks are sensationalist and drawn more from the imagination than from actual experience. At least one English painter, John Frederick Lewis, did spend a decade in Cairo Egypt and tried to assimilate the culture and customs of that land. he did commit one minor sin-he painted himself into some of the figures of his paintings but otherwise tried to stick with first-hand experiences. Another successful painter was Ludwig Deutsch; I especially like his painting, The Furniture Maker. http://www.orientalist-art.org.uk/deutsh16.html
For many fine examples of Orientalist art, I found this website very worthwhile: http://www.orientalist-art.org.uk/index.html

Saw this in an auction closing May 22 and though it would be a great addition to someone's "Turkish Corner".  Lot details here.

In 1909, the Victor Talking Machine Company sent twenty-five 'L-door' Victrola XVI's 'in the white' to Morocco to be inlaid by Islamic artisans.  Every exposed surface of the cabinets were covered with intricate marquetry in several woods and ivory -- under the lid, inside the doors and around the edges, the pull-out shelf, even the interior of the horn (this model Victrola preceded the 'tone-modifier' louvers that span the horn opening of subsequent model iterations).  Victor featured these machines in a series of magazine advertisements that year with a price of $750 each -- $17685.11 in 2009 dollars.  Only two examples of these Moorish marquetry cabinet Victrolas survive, both secreted away in very private collections.  Only the most advanced phonograph collectors are even aware of the existence of these machines and very few have ever seen one.  A Google search turns up no photos.  One of these two sold at auction in 2000 or so for $75000 -- a then-record price for an old phonograph (that has since fallen).  Another MM-inlay Victrola was known to have been in the smoking room of a Cleveland theater, but disappeared around 1970 when the theater was slated for demolition.  The whereabouts of that example are unknown today.
I used to have a photo from the auction website of the $75K example, but lost it in a hard-drive crash.  To wit, I have attached a photo of a conventional mahogany-cabinet 'L-door' VV-XVI.  Just imagine this in Moorish marquetry!  'L-door' Victrola XVI's (and the fancier VV-XX) are direct descendants of the earliest 1906 Pooley-cabinet, flat-top 'VTLA' model and are easily identifiable by the L-shaped record storage cabinet doors that wrap the sides of the horn chamber doors.

Image courtesy of www.victor-victrola.com