under glass painting was popular in Turkey in the19th and early 20th centuries.At one time such paintings were to be found not only in houses,but in place of worship,coffehouses,confectioners,butchersand barbers shops.when girls got married their trousseaus were not complete without under glass painting.Yet today they have become a rarity.and the artists who made them have given up as their customers dwindled.The artists worked in powder paint,water paint,gouache,oils,and in latter times in acrylic.They worked on the back of the glass adding the colours in layers,so that once one colour had been covered,retouching or alteration was impossible.The outline,details,signature and date were executed first,unlike an ordinary painting in which this come last.The artist then filled in the surfaces between the lines and finally the background.Under glass or reverse glass painting was done on sheets of 2-3mm thick glass.Different subjects were preferred for homes and work places.Pictures of shahmaran(sahmaran)a creature half-human and half-serpent who was a symbol of wisdom,were generally hung in houses,in belief that they brought good fortune and health.The serpent has been a symbol of womanhood and hence fertility and abundance,in many places a round the world.Another picture is the seven sleepers motif,a calligraphic composition in the form of a galley which was believed to bring prosperity.This was common hung in shops and offices.