Royal Riches and Parisian Trinkets: The Embassy of Saïd Mehmet Pasha to France in 1741–42 and Its Exchange of Gifts

Abstract

An episode in the diplomatic relations between France and the Ottoman Empire serves to illustrate the diversity of diplomatic contact in the eighteenth century, and the use of works of art in the context of such exchanges. In the first half of the eighteenth century, the presence of an Ottoman embassy in Paris in 1721 and 1742 and the subsequent exchanges offer a fascinating view of the halting processes by which the two worlds came into contact. The visits reveal how these very different cultures reacted to each other, and how the exchange of magnificent presents suggested the priorities of each society and what they thought of themselves and each other.