In September 2025, Yazan Krayem photographed the rooms of Azm Palace in Damascus. They are full of the materials our boxes are made from: carved and painted wood, mother-of-pearl inlay and colored stone. These are the details that stood out.
Ceilings in wood and gold
One ceiling is carved and painted in a pattern of stars.
Another is built from painted beams in blue, red and gold.
A third is gilded. A lamp hangs from it, above wooden panels painted with calligraphy.
The painted and gilded work on these ceilings and panels is Ajami (العجمي). Wooden panels are primed, the ornament is built up in relief with gesso, then covered with gold or tin leaf and colored glazes, and the spaces between are painted. The finished panels are fixed to the walls and ceilings. The word means foreign, most likely a reference to the Persian influence on its motifs. The craft goes back at least to the Mamluk period and flourished in Ottoman Damascus.
Furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl
In a room with green painted walls, an inlaid table stands with mother-of-pearl furniture around it.
In another room, inlaid sofas face red niches that hold blue and white plates.
Inlay in stone
The inlay is not only in wood. Stone and marble frame this arched doorway.
The same inlay fills panels on the striped stone facade above it.
A marble fountain is inlaid with colored stone.
From the house to the box
Our boxes use the same ideas on a smaller scale: geometric patterns of stars and diamonds, cut from fine woods and mother-of-pearl and assembled by hand in Damascus. To see how that works, read How a Damascene Mosaic Box Is Made and What Is Damascene Mosaic?. Our current pieces are in the Mosaic Boxes collection.
Photographs: Yazan Krayem, September 2025.