Turkish coffee pot
Middle East, possibly Turkey
1875-1930
Measurements
1-7/8 in x 8 in x 2 in
Materials
Brass (bowl), copper (handle), iron (rivets)
Credit Line
Historic Odessa Foundation, The David Wilson Mansion, Inc.
Accession Number
1971.901
Provenance
Ex coll. Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary Corbit) Warner. See "Comments" below.
Comments
This little brass cup has a broad base, in-curved sides, and a slightly flaring top with a rim folded outward and flat. A pouring spout is at a right angle to a long copper handle, which divides into three tabs at the cup. Each tab is held in place with an iron rivet. The inside of the cup is coated, probably with tin.
The form and manufacture of this object are simply foreign to Western metalwares of the 18th or 19th centuries. Its design has no early counterpart. The crude workmanship visible on the handle is not at all typical of Western metalwork. Use of iron rivets rather than copper or brass is likewise unusual. All of these and other issues find resolution when this object is compared to Turkish coffee pots, a form called a cezve (“jezz-vah”), made to brew single servings of coffee from very fine grounds. Although the cezve looks similar to a modern butter warmer, there is no historical relationship that informs this object.
The Turkish coffee pot was catalogued in 1971 among the many objects in the Wilson-Warner House, most of which had been collected and otherwise acquired by Mrs. Mary Corbit Warner. Her exotic tastes may have included this object, which she may have acquired from the nascent antiques trade thinking it was something else. Alternatively, it may have come from some other source.
