Couple’s vast collection highlights history of Turkish coffee
A Turkish couple has set their eyes on developing a unique coffee museum while simultaneously educating the public by loaning out items of their massive collection to famous exhibitions. They have the world’s largest private collection of Turkish and Ottoman coffee paraphernalia.
After starting their collection with three exquisite porcelain coffee cups around three decades ago, Nihal Bursa, head of the Department of Industrial Design at Beykent University in Istanbul, and her husband, Murat Sungur Bursa, a mechanical engineer, decided to make it a lifetime endeavour to collect and contribute to Turkish coffee culture.
Thousands of rare pieces that depict the refined coffee culture that arose in Ottoman geography and expanded to other parts of the world are now part of their collection.
Their passion for coffee culture has blossomed into a collection that they have amassed over the years through travels across the world, auctions, street bazaars, and antique shops.
Traditional equipment and vessels for preparing and serving coffee, roasters, coolers, mortar and pestles, grinders, boxes for storing, special coffee pots, cups, and censers, as well as printed matter and ephemera, the oldest pieces dating back to the 17th century, are among the more than 5,000 items in the collection.
Turkish coffee blends a rich community heritage with steps and stages of serving and brewing procedures, while the custom itself is a sign of hospitality, friendship, refinement, and entertainment, according to the pair.
