Henri Moser-Charlottenfels, son of the wealthy Swiss industrialist Heinrich Moser, is considered one of the pioneering amateurs of the nineteenth century in the field of Islamic art because of his activities as a collector and exhibitor.
Born and raised in St Petersburg, Moser returned to Switzerland in 1848, but maintained strong ties with the Russian Empire. This manifested itself, for example, in his enthusiasm for Central Asia, which he explored in the course of four expeditions between 1868 and 1890. During these, he visited Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiwa (in modern Uzbekistan), and Merv (in modern Turkmenistan), and laid the foundations for what was to become his art collection.
From 1893, he was General Commissioner for Bosnia-Herzegovina and as such was responsible for the Bosnian pavilions at the Brussels world’s fair in 1897 and the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. His publications include the travelogue A travers l’Asie centrale (1886); L’Orient inédit. À travers la Bosnie et l’Herzégovine (1895); and Sammlung Henri Moser-Charlottenfels. Orientalische Waffen und Rüstungen (1912).
In 1906, Moser bought back Charlottenfels Castle, the family residence in Neuhausen (Switzerland), which he had sold in 1889 after his fourth expedition to Central Asia. Here, the Parisian architect Henri Saladin (1851–1923) installed a private museum for Moser that included an Arab-style smoking room (the fumoir), composed of original Islamic furniture and contemporary replicas, including one of an Islamic stucco and glass window (IG_64). In 1914, Moser donated bequeathed his smoking room, together with his collections of photographs and Islamic art as part of his estate to the Bernisches Historisches Museum. The Arab-style interior and selected pieces from his art collection were integrated into the permanent exhibition of the museum in 1922.

Alban von Stockhausen, "Our aim is to perform something that remains after we are gone": The Oriental Collection Henri Moser Charlottenfels at Bernisches Historisches Museum", in: Francine Giese, Mercedes Volait, Ariane Varela Braga (eds.), A l’Orientale – Collecting, Displaying and Appropriating Islamic Art and Architecture in the West (Arts and Archeology of the Islamic World), Leiden: Brill, 2019, 189–200.

Balsiger, R. N., Kläy, E. J. (1992). Bei Schah, Emir und Khan: Henri Moser Charlottenfels, 1844–1923. Schaffhouse : Meier.

Ernst Johannes Kläy, Orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser Charlottenfels, Bern: Bernisches Historisches Museum, 1991.

Henri Moser Charlottenfels, A travers l’Asie centrale. La steppe kirghize, le Turkestan russe, Boukhara, Khiva, le pays des Turcomans et la Perse. Impressions de voyage, Paris: E. Plon Nourrit, 1885.

Henri Moser Charlottenfels, Sammlung Henri Moser Charlottenfels. Orientalische Waffen und Rüstungen, Leipzig. Hiersemann, 1912.

Robert Pfaff, „Henri Moser-Charlottenfels und seine Orientalische Sammlung“, in: Schaffhauser Beiträge zur Geschichte, 1985, Bd. 62, S. 117-156.

Roger N. Balsiger, Ernst J. Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan. Henri Moser Charlottenfels 1844-1923, Schaffhausen: Meier, 1992.

Rudolf Zeller, „Die ethnographische Abteilung“, in: Jahresbericht des Historischen Museums in Bern, II. Jahrgang 1922, Bern: K. J. Wyss, 1923, S. 142-159.

Rudolf Zeller, „Die orientalische Sammlung von Henri Moser auf Charlottenfels im Histor. Museum in Bern“, Das Werk, 9, H. 10, 189-204.

Rudolf Zeller, „Die orientalische Sammlung von Henri Moser auf Charlottenfels“, Jahresbericht des Historischen Museums in Bern 1914, Bern: K. J. Wyss, 1915, 77-120.

„Stiftungsurkunde betreffend die orientalische Sammlung des Herrn Henri Moser von Schaffhausen, mit Wohnsitz auf «Charlottenfels», bei Neuhausen; zur Zeit mit Aufenthalt im Hotel Bernerhof, Bern“, in: Jahresbericht des Historischen Museums in Bern 1914, Bern: K.J. Wyss, 1915, 71-76.