Abdul Hamid’s Shoddy.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2664, 20 November 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

Abdul Hamid’s Shoddy.

“VULGARITY’’-. AND “BAD TASTE” OF PALACE FURNITURE.

The legendary , luxury and splendour of Yildiz' Kiosk, the palace of the exSultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid, are declared by a Constantinople correspondent of the “Cabinet Maker,” to have been grossly exaggerated. Through the part ho took in organising a gala at , Yildiz, on behalf of the Adana Fund, the correspondent' had. remarkable opportunities for exploring the palace. “The whole place looked mean,” lie states. “The passages are small. Cupboards seem to be a mania. With a very few exceptions, the private apartments contain nothing of value. The general idea of the furniture was that it was not only poor but in exceedingly bad taste.”

The ex-Sultan’s apartments were exactly as they were left on the night lie was" taken as a prisoner to Salomon. “The Sultan was at the time evidently trying to get some rest oil a couch. Ill's papers were still on the floor —the “Serbesti,” his favorite newspaper, on the table. The editor has since been hanged.

“The room adjoining contained another couch, on which was sleeping Abdul Raham, one of his sons. The quilts and slippers—the quilts thrown back and partly on the floor—show*the hurried way he left" liis couch. On tho table are two .bottles, one a cordial and the other some ‘heart and nerve tonic’ the Sultan used to take. The Sultan’s bathroom is quite a small apartment. Some of the cabinets lcok as though they -had come from a bai'ber’s shop. His study was cue mass of desks and cupboards. “The windows are not properly painted. One of the carpets has a large hole in it. His quarters were not- only small and mean, but so stuffy and hot we were glad .to get out. “Adjoining his bathroom is another small room in which he worked as a carpenter. Inlay of various colored woods, also pearl, and some five or six panels in liis study are said to he Iris work. They look like it. The drawing is bad and tbe mixture of colored woods quite vulgar. The workmanship, however, is neat and accurate.” The ex-Sultan’s “slurt room” is described as lined with “selves all round covered -with plush, lie lias a lew hundred plush boxes of shirts ami vests of all kinds. Soule two thousand waistcoats show his mama 'tor new things, which he never wore. I crimps the most-interesting articles are the bulletproof waistcoats, lie had th.rpe. /of., them. ” Nri