"Gold & Damascus Steel – The Ottoman Art of Bladesmithing" Exhibition
 

I have visited yesterday a wonderful exhibition in Coburg, Germany "Gold & Damascus Steel – The Ottoman Art of Bladesmithing". The presented swords and daggers are the real masterpieces of Ottoman art. One can see the unique early blades from 15-16 centuries alongside with beautiful blades from the sultan's workshops.
There is an absolutely great catalogue of the exhibition, with all the pieces which were photographed in detail and described, alongside with new insights on Wootz production and blade decoration. I would recommend to study the catalogue before going to the exhibition, to understand and enjoy it more fully.

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The last two

Superb.

Thank you.

Amazing !
Thank you !!!

Thank you so much for the pictures! I just ordered the catalogue, hopefully the nimchas will be in it.

Zukran!

All swords from the exhibition are very well pictured and described in detail in the catalogue.
The articles on evolution of Ottoman arms, Wootz production and sword decoration are bilingual, and the individual sword descriptions are only in German. But it is still a huge and heavy volume!

some vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxBQlnLJsCo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8jmpskauHQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvo6H_OBg0

some vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxBQlnLJsCo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKvo6H_OBg0

Wonderful!!!

Thank you very much!

Great recommendation and write-up. It truly is a unique exhibition, well worth visiting, and I second the advice to acquire and read the catalog beforehand. It is a rare opportunity to see a private collection of this caliber and so well represented.
But it will only be open until the third of November, so time is running out.

Here is a close up shot of one of the rare pieces a friend of mine made on his visit.


- Kurt

Beautuful exhibition and very nice book, although a minor point concerning the bibliography in the book : too much references to auction guides and auction houses / sales rooms compared to the number of actual literature on the cold weapons itself with regards to history and such by scolars and musea.
Nothing wrong with these from a visualisation perspective but lesser from a background historical "learning" perspective ☺

Thank you,

an amazing collection at the exhibition thanks for sharing.

Regards, Martin

I finally received the catalogue and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in Ottoman (or in my case, North African) blades. It is more than reasonably priced (the book itself, shipping to the US is another issue) for the scope and quality of the edition. The descriptions to the individual objects are very thorough, almost small essays in themselves.