ORIENTAL AND TURKISH MUSETTE.
An exhibition of somewhat the same character as the Chinese collection which first gave name and fame to the building now called St. George's Gallery has been opened there this week. It illustrates the costumes, appearance, and manners of the Moslems, more particularly as seen in Constantinople ; and consists of groups in wax-work elaborately habited, —located, where needful, according to the circumstances—now in the bath, now in an apartment of the harem, now in a shop of the bazaar,—and of a mianAllany of implements, articles of furniture, &c. Among the principal subject; together with those just re- ferred to, are a coffee-shop with shaving and coffee-drinking operations; an Armenian marriage; Janissaries in great variety of costume, and occupation,—for the aim is to represent distinctive phases of Oriental life now vanished or vanishing, as well as the semi-Europeanized aspect of the present ; a Divan, with the late Sultan Mahmoud receiving the news of the destruction of the Janissaries; a group of Bashi-bozonks, with the Amazonian Kara Fat= ; Constantinopolitan porters ; a car- riage-party at the Valley of Sweet Waters ; and a lady dictating to a public writer. The exhibition is a gorgeous one in point of costume. There is a great deal of character also and life-likeness in the figures : several are portraits of distinguished persons ; and others, though merely representative of classes or manners, have the individuality of portraiture. Some novel points of realism are managed with great dexterity ; the hirsute limbs of a marine, and the perspiring strength of the heavy-laden porters. No less a period than ten months is announced to have been spent in preparations ; "the various costumes and other curiosities have been prepared at Constantinople, and the wax-work executed," by Mr. James Boggi, "from original sketches also made in the capital." The circumstances of the day give the exhibition its motive and its zest; but it would be a remarkable one of its kind without them.
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