Sərşəhər, Şahnişin, Zərnigar — the meaning of our names
The three large chests of the collection take their names from the most honoured places of the town, the home and the craft.
Sərşəhər — "the head of the town" — is Ordubad's upper quarter, where the caravan road entered the town. On market day the first trading began here, and the town's news spread from here. The twelve-compartment Sərşəhər chest is a flavour map of the town: each compartment is a quarter.
Şahnişin — the bright room of the traditional Azerbaijani home that projects over the street, with windows on three sides; the word means "the place where the shah sits". The dearest guest would be invited here, and the finest table laid here. In the old houses of Ordubad, the shahnishin survives to this day. The fifteen-compartment Şahnişin chest is the shahnishin of the table.
Zərnigar — “zər” gold, “nigar” ornament — was the name for manuscript pages decorated with liquid gold. In the art of the miniature, Zərnigar pages were made only for palace libraries, and the master's name was written at the end. Fifty copies a year, a numbered passport, the master's signature — the Zərnigar chest carries that tradition on in wood.
Sərşəhər