Description

Original handwritten ALS. Sent to Hamamdjizades (Hamamdji Zade Nouri Aly). Letterhead 'Simeon Guentcheff & Freres' as bilingual in Bulgarian and French. Dated 2.XI.1927. "Accusons réception de votre honoree du 25 m.p. sont le contenu nous tromous conforme aux commandes faites par votre M.eur Nicolas Guentcheff.". After that introduction there's a short list: Poissons: Scoumuri, Palamond, Toric. 'Tarama', 'Marmeredjik' and Charan, Ak-cheir and Bandirma caviars. Haci Tahir Bey, who came from Bahçesaray (Bakhchysarai) in the Crimea with his entire family, was one of many refugees. And he faced all the difficulties both of exile and of resettlement. As soon as he arrived, Tahir Bey found himself in the heart of Istanbul's commercial life; however, carving himself a niche was easier said than done. At first he dealt in provisions; in 1859, he became a tobacco trader in the neighborhood of Langa Kapisi, also known as Yeni Kapi, in Istanbul. Soon, unfortunately, he found that established local merchants were unhappy with the competition and complained to the Municipality. In turn, the Municipality ruled that, provided they did not engage in illegal activities, Tahir Bey and the rest of the refugees should be allowed to conduct their business unmolested. Just as he found no peace in his business dealings, Tahir Bey was not left alone in Zekeriyaköy, where he and his family had settled. According to members of the present generation of his family, his home was attacked by some local gangs so that they were forced to move to neighboring Sariyer. Around the same time, he moved his place of business to Unkapani, and his son Ali Nuri married the daughter of the owner of the historical Public Bath (hamam) of Sariyer. The profession of Ali Nuri Bey's father-in-law gave the family its surname as well as a brand name that would command respect for more than a century. Ali Nuri Bey continued in his father's footsteps, gradually becoming the kind of entrepreneur that the Ottoman Empire sorely needed. The 1880s witnessed his earliest ventures as he began to deal in provisions near Unkapani, and established the first incarnation of what would later become Hamamcioglu Müesseseleri Ticaret Türk A.S. in the form of a sole proprietorship located in the commercial building Limon Han in the Tütüngümrük neighborhood of the district of Eminönü. In 1885, his son Nuri Ali joined the firm. At this date, a commercial yearbook makes mention of "Ali (H.)", a dealer in oil and rice, at No. 36, Cambazhane Avenue. While we are unable to determine for certain whether or not this listing refers to a member of the Hamamcioglu family, the same commercial directory for the year 1896-1897 does refer to "Hamamcioglu Ali" as a merchant based at No. 85, Osman Efendi Han. Over the next few years, the firm moved a number of times within the same building: thus, it was listed at No. 75 in 1898,5 No. 3 in 1901,6 and No. 9 in 1909. Starting in the 1910s, the firm Hamamcizadeler (or, as it is now known, Hamamcioglu) ventured into different business areas at different locations with a speed that makes it difficult to follow its precise trajectory. For example, a receipt from the wholesale fish market dated 1911 points to the family's interest in seafood. On the other hand, a document dated August 1914 now preserved in the Ottoman Archives orders that the olives in the warehouses belonging to Hamamcizade Ali Bey in the towns of Gemlik and Kursunlu should be guarded, indicating that the firm had a rather broad range of interests within the food sector.8 A listing of businesses registered at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1923 describes "Hamamci Zade Nuri Ali", still located in the commercial building Osman Efendi, as dealing in "fish etc." 9 It is safe to assume that this qualification refers to all kinds of seafood -including salted fish, dried fish, caviar. (Source: Hundred Years Stories Official Website).