“I want to share with the viewers of the Damascus metalwork website the origin of my interest in this area.
I was born in Damascus, Syria, and when I was 11 or 12 years old my family moved to the Touma ancestral home in the Christian quarter of the historic old city of Damascus. Suddenly I was surrounded by all kinds of authentic Damascene crafts. For seven years I watched the artisans carving walnut wood to make wonderful furniture, creating beautiful mosaic boxes using several kinds of wood and mother of pearl, shaping chair legs to make wooden seats and melting metal alloy to make old-fashioned large keys. What fascinated me most was the metalwork. At that time most of the metalwork was done by Jewish and Christian artisans, who engraved and inlaid with silver brass trays and various other wares. These workshops were in the heart of the Jewish and Christian quarters where we lived. For seven years I observed with fascination the beauty and the complexity of their artwork.
Fast forward to the 1980s, and my love for this art was awakened during our visits to Damascus while walking the narrow streets of the old city. To my surprise the workshops were still there, and the sounds of chiseling the brass and inlaying the silver have not changed. I bought a few pieces and began a 25-year quest researching and acquiring exquisite pieces. The collection comprises 300 pieces, including Damascene engraved and silver- and gold-inlaid works. It includes trays, boxes, incense burners, vases, pitchers and basins. The majority were produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries at the height of the Mamluk Revival era that ended at the start of WW1. During this period artisans tried to copy the fabulous and extremely rare Mamluk art.
Included in the collection is a group of enamel pieces unique to Damascus and produced by a Christian family by the name of Sarraf. This art continued for a few years after the last member of the Sarraf family passed away under the direction of Ahmad Tinawi, one of the Sarraf family’s craftsmen. The enamel collection is considered the largest collection of its kind.
In addition to the Damascene artwork, the collection includes Cairene, Persian and Khorassan metalwork. The collection also has a few pieces from the Nseiri workshop, which spanned over two generations of the Nseiri family until Mr. Maurice Nseiri immigrated to the United States in the late ‘90s. It all came full circle; this Jewish family’s workshop was only one block from our house, both located on the street called straight where St. Paul once walked. Both father and son were masters, producing some of the finest metalwork pieces in the collection. You can see their work at the presidential palace, the Sheraton hotel and various mansions in Damascus and the oil-rich countries.”
The Huntington Museum of Art, in Huntington, WV, displayed select Mamluk Revival Metalwork from the TOUMA Collection from November 16, 2019 to February 9, 2020. Learn more about the exhibit from the museum’s Executive Director, Geoffrey Fleming.
