The remarkable photography of Zafer Baran emerged from a hard-edged education in a Bauhaus atmospherre. But Baran's powers of observation were to lead him into a world of pure colour, moods and associations into which the viewer in turn is irresistably drawn.
Glowing golden discs set this painterly image from 1988 alight. In the Eighties much of Baran's experimental work involved complex constructions of glass.
Chinese blue and white has had an unparalleled influence on taste in East and West. Every self-respecting Islamic court had its collection of this precious porcelain, but the Topkapi amassed one of the richest in the world. John Carswell, author of a highly acclaimed book published by the British Museum, began his own quest in a cathedral in Jerusalem and pursued it to the sands of the Gobi Desert. Here he tracks the march of blue and white from southern China to the Mediterranean and introduces the cream of the Topkapi collection.
Top: A mythical equine 'qilin' leaps across a rocky landscape in this 14th-century blue and white Yuan dish.
Below: replete with Buddhist good-luck emblems, this 14th-century bowl makes powerful use if optical effects, contrasting on white and white on blue
The Chinese blue-and-white inspired ceramics in the Murad II Mosque in Edirne. Cornucopia 19.
In Cornucopia 28 Possibly the earliest known blue and white porcelain to reach Europe.
Follow the story of Blue and White to the Blavitt exhibition in Stockholm, the culmination of a 20 year project Cornucopia 39
Travel
The life of Dionysus by Jacqueline de Gier with photographs by Julia Guest
Antakya, ancient Antioch, is a place of contraditions - a cosmpolitan backwater, a fleshpot where religions flourish, a car-choked city with courtyards that still smell of lavender and lemon.
Known for its excesses since bibkical times and still a consumer haven, Antakya is nevertheless asmall, friendly city where soaps and saddles and lace are lovingly made by hand.
The orchid hunters Plant spotting across Anatolia text and photographs by Andrew Byfield
They are a dedicated breed, but not all orchid hunters share the same agenda. Some are driven to record in minute detail the glory of Turkey's orchid species, all 148 of them. Others are more interested in eating them.
The shady lowland pine forests of western Anatolia are brightened with the gleaming white flowers of the helleborine Cephalanthera epipactoides.
Andrew Byfield's other beautifully illustrated articles on the Turkish flora include:
Turkish bulbs and their precarious survival in the wild. Cornucopia 3
Arums and Aristolochias Cornucopia 6 Wildflowers along the Anastasian Wall Cornucopia 7 Snowdrops in the Taurus Mountains Cornucopia 11 Black Sea rhododendrons Cornucopia 13 The Black Sea's peat-bog flora in Cornucopia 14 Wildflowers among the cedars Cornucopia 16 The story of Turkey's mountain-top primroses and primulas in Cornucopia 15 A dramatic account of Istanbul's own magnificent flora in Cornucopia 21
Cookery
Mellow fruitfulness by Berrin Torolsan
Sweet chestnuts, autumn's bounty, spread from the forests of Anatolia to feed the Roman legions and provide daily sustenance to most of Europe. Today they are reserved for festivities. Berrin Torolsan reclaims this abundant, mellow-flavoured nut with a wealth of forgotten recipes.
A monument to Victorian Gothic The Crimean Memorial Church in Istanbul by Geoffrey Tyack with photographs by Kerem Üzel
Stone from Malta, tiles from Marseilles, timber from Trieste, and money from England... A monument to Victorian Gothic.
'To anyone familiar with Victorian church architecture in Britain, a visit to Christ Church, Istanbul - familiarly known as the Crimean Memorial Church - is an uncanny experience. Here is a church that seems to have strayed out of London's suburbs or, perhaps, one of the seaside resorts of England's south coast. Having approached it through narrow streets lined with wooden houses, the visitor is suddenly confronted by a building in uncompromising Gothic style which pays no respect at all to the genius locii...'
Also in this issue
Restoration Drama: How the church was saved by Andrew Finkel
People and places
Reflections on a lost summerhouse by Arlette Mellaart
After years of neglect, the Savfet Pasha Yali became a much-loved, if leaky, home filled with the sound of classical music. Arlette Mellaart, who went to live there ar fifteen, recalls three happy decades spent in this fragile bohemian setting: her stepfather's haughty mother, the cats and the rats, the bustling Bosphorus, the parties, the wartime intrigues, and married life - all to the accompaniment of her mother's piano-playing.
Arlette Mellaart's husband, James Mellaart was responsible for the discovery of Çatalhüyük and they spent the early sixties excavating the site together. The story of the momentous discovery of the earliest known city is described in Cornucopia 19
James Mellaart was 80 in November 2005. Christian Tyler profiles the remarkable archaeologist in Cornucopia 35
Moving Freely by Maureen Freely
In 1960 Maureen Freely’s family packed up all they possessed, waved goodbye to Princeton, New Jersey, and stepped out into the unknown. She had no idea why. Their destination was to her merely a name on a map: Istanbul. It was to become the place she still thinks of as home. Her father, John Freely, would write the classic guidebook ‘Strolling Through Istanbul’. More than forty years later, Maureen looks back on a golden childhood of parties, laughter and, above all, adventure
