Lying-in Room of a Distinguished Turkish Woman

After a birth in a well-to-do Istanbul household, the new mother received visitors, and Vanmour sets out one of those visits almost step by step. She sits up in a great bed under green curtains, propped on red cushions, in an elaborate headdress. In the middle of the room coffee is being made over a brazier, and at the far left an enslaved woman is already preparing sherbet. After the refreshments the guests were offered rosewater, sprinkled from a flask, to wash their hands, and perfume from a burner, like the smoking one being carried across the carpet on a tray. The cloths hanging along the green walls, embroidered, fringed and brightly coloured, are presents the visitors have brought.