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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Lotfiya and the major
By Fayza Hassan
Recently, on a late afternoon tour of the Ibn Tulun quarter, we stopped at Khan Ibn Tulun, a charming shop selling Egyptian arts and crafts and catering to foreigners in search of souvenirs with a difference. The ambience was so pleasant that we never went any further and I became so caught up in the charming bazaar-like brouhaha that I eventually left with arms full of purchases, forgetting the question that had been on the tip of my tongue: What is happening with the Gayer-Anderson Museum?
On a visit to the museum last year, I had admired the twin buildings of the Gayer-Anderson complex, which houses a man's life-time collection, consisting of objects gathered in the various countries he visited while serving in the Egyptian army. Many exquisitely crafted pieces had seemed in need of prompt professional attention, "as they run the risk of being permanently damaged," Ahmed Talaat, one of the young restoration experts working for the Supreme Council of Antiquities, which oversees the maintenance of the buildings and surrounding grounds, had told me.
A few days ago, searching for various representations of pharaohs, I chanced upon a rather interesting-looking slim volume published for children by Hoopoe Books and illustrated, it said, by Theo Gayer-Anderson. The cover stated succinctly: "Sculptor and illustrator Theo Gayer-Anderson lives in Egypt." Believing it to be a sign, I began to search forI the owner of a name that had been occupying my thoughts on and off since my foray to Khan Ibn Tulun; two days later, I was sitting across the table from the collector's heir apparent in an airy Garden City apartment. We talked about Major Robert Gayer-Anderson, and Theo's kitten did its very best to carry away the cap of my pen. Visiting the house had aroused my curiosity, but at the time I had found little information about the man who had lived there, I explained.
"Gayer-Anderson was a surgeon by profession," said the young man facing me. "At a young age, he was offered the chance to practice in Harley Street, but he was possessed with a desire to see the world. Setting up practice in style could have been a befitting end to a long and successful medical career, but it was too stuffy for a beginning, so around 1917, he gave it all up to join the military and was seconded to Egypt. Here he served as a major in the Egyptian army under General Allenby, whom he accompanied on several of his campaigns. He spent time in Syria and the Sudan, eventually rising to the rank of Egyptian Recruiting Officer and finally to that of Oriental Secretary."
Theo believes that the major acquired a taste for Egyptian antiquities quite early, but had his best chance to collect artefacts when he was a recruiting officer: "He went up and down the Nile several times a year, and wherever his boat would dock, the traders who had come to know him would run up to him to show him their finds." Gayer-Anderson was mainly interested in small objects: scarabs, small statues, jewellery and bits of pottery. He picked and chose and slowly built up an impressive collection. In Cairo, where his gift for treasure-finding had become well recognised, he organised regular exhibitions, first downtown, and then in his Zamalek apartment, where every item on sale had a fixed price. Soon he was being commissioned by museums across Europe to look for specific pieces.
Around 1929, when he rose to the position of Oriental Secretary, the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe (the Committee for the Conservation of the Monuments of Arab Art) was restoring some of Cairo's Mameluke and Ottoman houses and offering them under a system of guardianship to hand-picked individuals, able and willing to complete the restoration and carry on the basic maintenance. "He had always dreamed of living in one of those houses, and he may have used his position to obtain one from the Comité," comments Theo.
He was given a small complex, consisting of two houses adjoining Ibn Tulun Mosque and known together as Beit Al-Kridliya, soon after it was purchased by the Egyptian government in 1934 from the last member of the Kridli family, Sheikh Soliman. One of the houses, which gave its name to the complex, was built in 1631 and later joined to a second house, Manzil Amna Bint Salem, built in 1540. The two houses were linked at the third-floor level by a covered bridge, according to architect and restoration expert Bernard Maury: "Both built of sandstone, with exterior decorations relying heavily on Mameluke motifs, the two adjacent houses eventually came to be perceived as one unit when they were linked by a common third storey of red brick, added during the 18th century. Their general appearance was typical of the elegant bourgeois dwellings of the period, except for two rather exceptional features, namely the presence of two opposite entrance doors uncharacteristic of Ottoman style, and an extension to the Kridliya house in the shape of a tower flanking one of its angles, and which formed a sabil-kuttab adorned with a bronze grille."
Illustration by Theo Gayer-Anderson from The Legend of Lotfiya, retold by Andy Smart (1997) <
There, Gayer-Anderson concentrated on completing restoration work and on sorting and adding to his collections. He travelled the country to find new objects, scouring markets and furniture sales, searching for Ottoman fixtures and fittings in old villas and palaces up for demolition to use in the house or to add another dimension to an already ample collection of Pharaonic relics. He took extensive notes and began his biography (as yet unpublished), as well as a number of tales inspired by the mysterious anecdotes surrounding the house.
According to Theo, 15 of these short stories will soon be published by the American University in Cairo Press. What about the biography? Apparently, there is a general lack of interest in funding such a project, says Theo, although several biographers have expressed keen interest in writing it. "I guess I will have to save enough to be able to support myself while I am writing it," he says, "because I would definitely like to see Gayer-Anderson's longest story in print one day." For the time being, having just finished restoring an antique statue in the Egyptian Museum, Theo is concentrating on a project in Bab Zuweila, assisting architect and restorer Nairy Hampikian.
As Theo spoke, I could not shake the certainty that I had seen him somewhere. Suddenly it came to me. I remembered a younger version of him, aged 13 or 14, hanging on the wall of one of the Gayer-Anderson Museum's rooms. He had not changed a bit. But how could that be? The major had left Egypt in the early '40s, and Theo was certainly not born then. "That is my father," Theo explained. "He never came to Egypt, though. We seem to have skipped a generation." Apparently, Gayer-Anderson had a twin brother who was the artist of the family. He had painted the portrait and brought it with him as a gift. The twin often came to Egypt and was also very interested in antiques. "There are lots of stories about the special relationship uniting the two brothers who, it is said, were endowed with the gift of telepathy," adds Theo.
This Britain-bound twin, also an adventurer at heart, loved Egypt and took every opportunity to join his brother and linger at the house, which was always full of interesting visitors. The "Egyptian" Gayer-Anderson, who had started playing polo at the club, as any self-respecting British officer did at the time, had come to hate the colonial atmosphere. He had become a bit of a recluse but, with a house full of servants, he did not need to go to functions to meet people and could entertain lavishly instead, choosing to play host only to those whose company he enjoyed.
Gayer-Anderson finally returned to England in 1942 because of ill health. By this time, he had completely refurbished the complex. He bequeathed his architectural contribution and his collections to the Egyptian government and the houses have been known since as the Gayer-Anderson Museum.
Exquisitely painted and gilded ceilings in both the qa'as and the enclosed maq'ad compete in beauty with the intricately carved built-in cupboards, often characteristically Syrian in craftsmanship, and the large windows inset with delicately convoluted mashrabiya. These are Gayer Anderson's offerings to the restoration project. The carefully chosen furniture and precious objects, among which are several priceless pieces, are in complete harmony with the architectural setting.
Many more objects remain in storage or simply stashed away in cupboards, says Theo, and recently the British Embassy took an interest in restoring and exhibiting the entire collection, recreating the Gayer-Anderson surroundings as accurately as possible. Theo's dream is to spend one night at the Kridliya house, "especially if there is a power failure and I have to walk around with a candle." Maybe the ghost of the little girl (the protagonist of the Legend of Lotfiya, illustrated by Theo for Hoopoe Books) who is said to have almost drowned in the courtyard will come and visit him. An arched recess in Beit Al-Kridliya holds Bir Al-Watawit (the well of the bats), which has been the subject of many fantastic stories in the neighbourhood. In fact, the whole house was an exceptionally wealthy source of tales for local story-tellers, which inspired Gayer-Anderson's writing of short stories. Maybe Theo will also hear mysterious sounds emanating from the small mausoleum where a sheikh is buried in a corner of the courtyard. After all, the sheikh's moulid was observed and the tomb kept in good order as long as a Gayer-Anderson occupied the premises.
