Egypt’s famous antique shops suffer

Antique shop owners in the Cairo Islamic area of Al-Hussein have so few customers nowadays that they do not bother themselves to dust their collection of fine metalware. Other dealers say they can go for days without seeing even a buyer.

But while their business may be down these days, the antique shops in Al-Hussein boast items of museum quality that speak of Egypt's gloried past.

"The story of Egypt and the Arabs is here, if people look closely at these antiques," Gomaa Saydehum, 60, said at his shop. Behind him, there were a collection of old swords, silver trays, tea sets, fountain pens and an Italian-made water pitcher bearing the image of King Farouq.

Saydehum said the lack of business for antique shops reflects Egypt's economic stagnation, weak tourism movement and the still shaky security situation. He concedes he will not soon see a rush of tourists to buy his wares.

History provides rich sources for Cairo's antique market.

After Turkey's 1517 invasion of Egypt, goods from European, Arab and Asian wealthy homes were brought here, Saydehum said.

More treasures came with the sequestering of palaces in the days after the 1952 Revolution, he added.

Antique dealers said some items of these palaces had been sold in Cairo, but they all denied handling any suspect goods themselves.

Saydehum said Cairo itself provides many early 20th century antiques from families who fell on hard times after the 1952 Revolution.

Some of the best evidence of better days can be found by climbing the shaky stairs to this 75-year-old shop on a street along Khan el-Khalili in Cairo's old quarter.

Sitting under a coat of dust on the shop's floor are brass boxes in which wealthy women kept their toiletries and engraved water pitchers that the rich used to wash guests' hands after feasts.

Also on offer are a gramophone and a collection of rare records by legendary Egyptian singers Mohamed Abdul Wahab and Mounira el-Mahdiyah that went back to the 1930s.