SOME of the finest examples of a versatile reception room were created for the grander homes of the Ottoman Empire, 200–300 years ago. Although not all of them are from the capital city of Syria, they have tended to be called Damascus rooms since Victorian times. They are not available every Christmas as a last-minute gift for the whole family, but one was sold last October at Christie’s in London.
The appetite of buyers for sumptuous interiors seems to be returning; most of the other lots at recent auctions of Islamic art fared much less well than the room, which doubled its estimate to fetch £113,400. This sum sounds like a sultan’s ransom, until compared with the £112,549 paid for the refurbishment of the Prime Ministerial Downing Street apartment in 2021. What the Christie’s Ottoman room lacked in features such as a 1940s-style drinks
