A CAIRO BAZAAR

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22523, 4 October 1938, Page 15

A CAIRO BAZAAR

r* : ADDRESS BY MRS R, WALLWORK TRANSFORMATION OF BEER BOTTLES In ,an address at the Canterbury Women's Club yesterday afternoon, Mrs Richard Wallwork spoke of some of the places she had visited during her recent tour abroad. Objects of art were her special interest, and at Cairo, where East and West mingle but never blend, there were many things to appeal to her—the beauty of mosques and churches, crumbling ancient doorways, tree-lined boulevardes, and their contrast to skyscraper flats, Swiss and American restaurants, and French salons. At the bazaar in Ibrahim Pasha square jewellery, carpets, silver, brass, copper, and leather goods were spread out in profusion. The approach to the bazaar is a narrow dirty street through the native quarter in Cairo, and the visitor often prefers to hail a gharry —shaped like an old-fashioned victoria and drawn by two small horses—and be driven by a man who shouts the Arabic equivalent of "make-way" in a hoarse, monotonous chant. fascinating Glassware

The silversmiths' stall is one of the main attractions to the visitors;" but Mrs WaUwork found the Egyptian glassware very fascinating, and very cheap. Shapely tumblers were made from broken beer bottles which had been smelted down and reshaped by the blow-pipes of ingenious craftsmen. The glass spun out in this way had a curious lightness, and the rather uninspiring colours of old beer bottles became etherealised beyond recognition. There were Nile green tumblers and coffee cups of a lovely burnt rose. The rose colour costs a little more than the blue and green, because, as no amount of blowing of empty beer bottles will really produce pink glass, the pink had to be fabric cated by mixing in more expensive ingredients. . A , One glimpsed stark poverty through many a broken doorway in old Cairo. In this part of the city is an ancient Coptic church, which, it is claimed,, is the oldest church in the Christian world. Underneath the altar is a cave of living rock said to have been the resting place of the Holy Family on its journly into Egypt. In this church the altar screen of cedar wood, inlaid with ebony and ivory, is a miracle of loving workmanship, and Up carved ivory plaques are minutely worked to a lace-like delicacy, The ancient fluted pillars which support the roof look good for another thousand years or SO T r e id M^u S m e SAntiauiUes inCairo houses the treasures from Tutankham One can b only stare at these treasures ana marvel. Craftsmanship rhythm of design, poetry, sunrise and Bunset SDlendour of colour are to be f 3 there," said Mrs Wallwork. "They a?e obiects of art that require no inKrnreter They speak for themselves S a thousand "tongues, and .their Message is to the cultured and simple Sikf ? Onehas a feeling of inevitability and calm fulfilment, ap one fnoks at these age.old treasures and tS message is B still V tal and last.