This trade card, 115x80mm, illustrated on its reverse in a somewhat unexpected style, is from Le Hammam, Paris, and probably dates from around the time when the baths opened in 1876.
Not only was this a Victorian Turkish bath rather than an Islamic hammam, but as Nebahat Avcıoğlu convincingly shows in her illustrated account of the bath, 'From The Hammam to Le Hammam', in Turquerie and the politics of representation, 1728–1876 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), the building was much influenced by baths in Britain, and especially by Urquhart’s Hammam at 76 Jermyn Street. Her photograph shows all that remains today, the interior having been converted into offices.
This page last updated 01 January 2023
Nebahat Avcıoğlu, for telling me about these baths, and for her photo showing the outside today
© Malcolm Shifrin, 1991-2023