While working in Yildiz Palace on the furniture of Abdulhamid II, one of the items looked very simple yet extremely difficult to solve. At this time, with computer drawing programs, it was extremely hard for me to draw, and even today, I still find mistakes after 10 years. How could it possibly be made at those times with perfect craftsmanship and no mistakes?

A mysterious table in the palace

Some of the furniture found in the palace was manufactured in the carpenter workshop (Tamirhâne-i Hümâyûn) operating in Yıldız Palace during the reign of Abdulhamid II. The Sultan continued this occupation, which he carried out during his time as a prince, in this workshop in the Palace during his reign, in his spare time from state affairs.

As with most of the furniture exhibited in Tamirhâne-i Hümâyûn, star motifs were used as decoration on this coffee table, which is estimated to have been made in the 19th century. The triangles formed by the intersections of hexagons are approximately 1 mm in size, and colorful patterns were created by making different inlays. The coffee tabletop and all of the feet are decorated with these small inlays, and each pattern is made in a different geometric order. Patterns with the same geometric order are also changed with different colors by making different inlays.

Especially in the middle part of the large star motifs on the coffee table, it was observed that there was a lot of deformation, the gilding was damaged, and the polish was scratched.

The coffee table is made with the Khatam Kari marquetery technique, which is widely done in Iran.

Sealing wood with art

Khatam-kari (خاتم‌کاری) or khatam-bandi (خاتم‌بندی) are different definitions of this art, and the word Khatam (خاتم‌) is an Arabic word meaning ‘to seal’. Khatam Kari is an exquisite and meticulous work of marquetry (inlay), the earliest examples of which date back to the Safavid period. Khatam was so appreciated by the court that some princes learned the technique in the same way as music, painting, or calligraphy.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Hatam technique declined before returning to fashion during the reign of Reza Shah, when craft schools were established in Tehran, Esfahan, and Shiraz. "Khatam" means "inlay." “Hatam-kari” is therefore “the work of encrustation." This technique essentially involves creating star-shaped motifs with thin wooden sticks (ebony, teak, jujube, orangewood, and rosewood sticks), brass (for gold parts), and camel bones (for gold parts).

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  1. Cut the material sticks.

  2. The sticks are given a triangular shape.

  3. The basic model is designed.

  4. Sticks are put together to create the basic pattern.

  5. The sticks are tied with rope and glue and compressed for 24 hours.

  6. 1 mm layers are cut from the glued prisms.

  7. Thin layers are combined and glued to the surface to be applied.

  8. The surface is finely sanded to make it as smooth as possible.

  9. It is oiled and polished until it shines, then the polish is applied.

Ivory, gold, and silver can also be used for collector coins. These sticks are first put together in triangular bundles, and then they are again joined and glued into bundles in a strict order to form a cylinder of about 70 cm, the edge of which shows the unity of the base of the final ornament: a six-pointed star is contained in a hexagon. These cylinders are then cut into shorter cylinders, then compressed and dried between two wooden planks before moving on to a final cut that makes slices around 1 mm thick. The latter is then ready to be coated and glued to the support object to be decorated before being varnished. If the object is curved, it can be preheated to soften it so it fits the curves perfectly. Decorated objects are legions: boxes, chess or backgammon (backgammon or knitwear), picture frames, and even musical instruments.

A mixture of science, poetry, and craft

The table is completely sealed with millimeter-sized materials like wood, brass, and bone, and in every corner there is Khatam art with different designs. The details and geometry are just a masterpiece.

There is a poem written in Persian on the edge of the coffee table with bone inlay. The poem is written in Persian in Nastaliq style and has 11 lines.

  1. That fate has two signs on every side.

  2. A thousand moons, a thousand are kehkesan. (One half is the moon, the other half is kehkesan.) Kehkesan: milky way.

  3. Asuman has mihir, mah, and kehkesan, but... (asuman sky, mihir: sun, mah:ay kehkesan: milky way)

  4. The sky is full of stars, but also mermuz (mermuz means secret and mysterious).

  5. How happy are these homes that are sources of happiness?

  6. Ebul Kasım from Isberar lives in this city. (Note: Isberarlı may have been a place name from that period.)

  7. This secret will remain a mystery until the end of the world.

  8. Those master ladies are no more.

  9. The sky contains bright stars in its dome.

  10. One hundred thousand of them have homes in this vast sky.

  11. There are shining pearls in this thousand.