AMONG the most recent publications of the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage is The Egyptian Diplomatic Club catalogue, which highlights the importance of one of Egypt’s most prestigious social clubs that, for many years, was the venue for significant socio¬political decisions. For the documentation team headed by Dr. Heba Barakat, the long awaited publication unveiled the history and treasures of the club, while the process of researching, gathering, verifying the data that formed the basis of such publication was equally thrilling.
The documentation commences with a complete survey account of what has been written, and published on the Club. Renowned local and foreign Arabic and English newspaper articles, chronicles, in print format and on the internet as well as recent publications were gathered and analysed. To our surprise most of these articles have been for the past decades copying and retelling popular stories without verifying them.
One such interesting tale relates to the shooting of Prince Ahmed Fouad, son of Khedive Ismail by his brother¬-in-law. This story was repeated so many times, that you almost see the stain of blood on the white Carrara marble steps of the club, visualize the chaos occurred during this incident, the loud noise, the escape to and from the differ¬ent halls and salons during the shooting chase.
A dramatic event indeed, but it didn’t occur at that Club. For decades prior to the building of this early 20th century venue, there used to be another royal club called the Khedivial Club at el-Manakb Street. Such club was featured by the earliest guide books of Khedival Egypt (Guerville & Reynolds-Ball) as the exclusive social club of the capital. The shooting took place in May 1898, while the Egyptian Diplomatic Club (for¬merly known as Club Mohamed Ali [CMA]) was initiated by the Club’s Company in 1907. The tax register and available maps all indicate that during this shooting incident the CMA plot was an empty piece of land belonging to Minister.
Date: 17-10-2010
The puzzle started to come together, only after the fall from grace of the old ”’royal” club did the need for a new one arise. A club, that was conceived from the start as an exclusive royal social club with its name Club Mohamed Ali engraved all around the building’s main facade.
Another interesting story that came up during the docu¬mentation, relates to one of the most important oil paintings exhibited at the Club ( 45 x 29 cm) produced by the famous French Orientalist painter Gerome (1834 -1904). Napoleon before the Sphinx is not only signed but also dedicated to Lepage, but what is more serious is that an exact copy appeared at a Museum in California.
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It is highly unlikely that Gerome produced exact copies of some of his paintings, although it is not totally ruled out. Accordingly, further study on the painting took place, which revealed that the painting still holds its original cus¬tom made wooden frame; the carpenter’s label and its address in Paris. Furthermore, several of Gerome’s paint¬ings purchased for the Egyptian art market hold dedica¬tions, thus a dedication to Faure Lepage, a renowned manufacturer of high quality ornamental arms and amour, is not surprising since Gerome bad a passion for oriental arms and depicted them in his drawings. Furthermore, Lepage and Gerome developed a two way client relationship which enabled Lepage to acquire dedicated paintings while for Gerome collect exquisite arms, a passion which unfortu¬nately brought his life to an end.
