Ottoman Empire is a fantastic company created by Les Lauder and Mark Howard of Lauder & Howard Antiques and Fine Art who, having found so many beautiful antiques from the Eastern Mediterranean, decided the best way to showcase them was to open a new store.

Bringing together more than 30 years’ experience in sourcing beautiful and unusual objects, Ottoman Empire provides more scope to offer antiques that wouldn’t normally be available at Lauder & Howard Antiques and Fine Art: decorations, larger items, rugs, architectural metalwork and giant terracotta urns.

 

What is the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire of the sixteenth century stretched from the Eastern Mediterranean, across North Africa and as far west as Spain, and throughout Syria and Greece.

Now called Istanbul and the capital of Turkey, Constantinople was a major trade point for goods travelling from east to west mainly via the Silk Route: a network of trade roads throughout Asia which also connected this diverse region to the Mediterranean world.

Goods including silk, porcelain, gems, and spices like pepper flowed into Europe via Constantinople, and the city became a linchpin of commerce and trade in goods from all over the known world: the many regions along the Silk Route, and all provinces of the vast Ottoman Empire.