The parade of the guildsmen: Jeweler-goldsmiths, beeswax-workers, flea market merchants, tinsmiths, spice-dealers, coffee-dealers, and flax-workers

 

130a

 

129b

In (129b) we see the sultan back in the observation tower again with two princes and four attendants while İbrahim Pasha is seated in his tent outside the pavilion. At the bottom of the frame, the procession of the Jeweler-Goldsmiths guild is in progress. A domed shop with examples of the guild’s work on display is being carried on a horse-drawn cart. The end of the guild’s contingent appears in the foreground of (130a), where we see guildsman carrying.gifts for the sultan followed by a turbaned figure dressed in a fur-lined kaftan and riding a horse. This is the chief jeweler of the palace and in addition to the other tokens of his rank, he is also accompanied by a small detachment of red-capped guardsmen.

The next guild to come marching is that of the beeswax-workers, who are carrying huge beeswax candles, some of which are lighted. They are followed by merchants of the flea market, who are bearing some very un-flea-market-looking.gifts. According to Vehbi, the next guild in the procession was that of the tinsmiths. Members of that guild do not appear in Levni’s scene but the huge dummy that they brought with them for the parade does. After the tinsmiths come members of the Spice-Dealers guild, carrying.gifts for the sultan and bowls of spices. In the upper left corner is a crowded contingent of coffee-dealers leading a wheeled cart on which is set a shop in which a bearded figure is shown roasting coffee beans in a working oven. Like the tinsmiths, the flax-workers who also marched this day are not shown by the artist but according to Vehbi they are the ones who brought the model of a galleon with all its sails set that appears near the upper right corner. The model measured four meters in length and a meter and a half in width. It was laden with goods and manned by about a hundred men who operated a mechanism that made it seem as if the ship was sailing. (Levni has put it on a wagon instead.) The sultan reportedly liked the ship so much that he had it brought into the imperial pavilion where he could examine it up close.


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