Recent history provides rich sources for Baghdad's antique market. After Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, goods from the neighboring country's wealthy homes and its national museum — famed for Islamic art and Quranic manuscripts — were hauled back here. More treasures came with the looting of Iraq's own national museum and Saddam Hussein's palaces in the lawless days after the American-led invasion of 2003.

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Some of the best evidence of better days can be found by climbing the shaky stairs to al-Khafaf's shop on a street along the River Tigris in Baghdad's old quarter. Sitting under a coat of dust on the shop's floor are silver-plated brass boxes in which wealthy women kept their toiletries and engraved water pitchers that the rich used to wash guests' hands after feasts.

Also on offer are floral-shaped silver candlesticks fashioned by Baghdad's renowned Jewish craftsmen, members of a religious community that went back more than two millennia and numbered upwards of 100,000 in the 1930s. Now it has been reduced to just a few people by the discrimination of ultra-nationalist governments and the lure of living in Israel.

"The Jewish craftsmen of Baghdad were at their best with silver and gold," said al-Khafaf, explaining a one-time informal division of specialization among artisans of different religious communities. "Muslims, on the other hand, were best with brass," said the 48-year-old, who has a day job as a veterinarian.

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In the downtown antique shops, there also are fine china tea sets bearing images of Faisal II, the last of Iraq's kings. Faisal II was murdered along with close family members in a 1958 military coup that heralded the start of years of political instability, genocide and human rights abuses. Complete sets can sell for $1,000.