Silver Tongs
Our small silver tongs are embossed with the Great Sphinx and Pyramids of Giza, which forms the circular logo of the ‘Egyptian Mail Steamship Company Ltd’. Established as a steamship service between Europe and Egypt between 1906-1908, its illustrious board of directors included Édouard Joseph, 1st Baron Empain (1852 – 1929), the wealthy Belgian banker and industrialist responsible for building the Paris Metro (1).
In 1906 he also began developing the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis, whose broad avenues and palatial buildings would include the celebrated Baron Empain Palace (‘Qasr Al Baron’) (2). Yet before construction began, keen amateur Egyptologist Empain, benefactor of the Musées Royaux in Brussels, recommended that prior to construction, the museum’s assistant curator Jean Capart should excavate Heliopolis (3), the location of Egypt’s most important temple to the sun god Ra which now largely lies beneath Cairo airport.
Yet back in the day when travellers to Egypt still mainly arrived by boat via the Marseille to Alexandria route, this included the Egyptian Mail Steamship Company’s two passenger ships ‘Cairo’ and ‘Heliopolis’. Their passengers could enjoy comfortable surroundings complete with silver table ware embossed with the company’s distinctive logo, from napkin rings to these silver tongs used for sugar, or more likely in our family’s case, the ice required in drinks.
References:
- Shakespeare, H. 1998 Belgian Companies in Egypt https://web.archive.org/web/20070314030229/http://www.booneshares.com/BELGIANCOMPANIESINEGYPT.htm
- Baron Empain Palace restoration at https://scenenow.com/Buzz/Belgium-s-Queen-Matilde-Opens-Exhibition-at-Baron-Empain-Palace, also https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/89100/Who-is-Baron-Empain-founder-of-historic-Baron-Palace-in
- Construction of Heliopolis & Capart’s excavations in Bruffaerts, J. & Bruwier, M. 2010, Belgian Archaeological Excavations at Heliopolis: 1907 campaign
