PROBABLY SWITZERLAND FOR THE TURKISH MARKET, 20TH CENTURY

Consumption of coffee in 19th century Turkey involved small ceramic cups set in richly adorned cup-holders called zarfs. As European craftsmanship imports increased in Ottoman Turkey over the 19th and early 20th centuries, western European manufactories started to produce such items for the Turkish market (Vernoit, 1997, pp. 173-176). Several comparable examples of Swiss zarfs manufactured in Geneva were sold at Christies, New York, 22 May 2008, lot 5, and 26 October 2007, lots 3 & 11.