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Towel

Towel

  • Place of origin:

    Turkey (made)

  • Date:

    1830-1870 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Cotton, embroidered with silk in double darning, double running in a line and musabak, with metal thread in double darning, fishbone and slanted satin stitch, and with plate in fishbone and satin stitch; edging of needle lace along each end

  • Credit Line:

    Given by Prof. R. M. Dawkins

  • Museum number:

    T.458-1950

  • Gallery location:

    Islamic Middle East, room 42, case 8E

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At the end of the 18th century embroidery designs began to develop into rigid and heavily stylised borders for towels and napkins. The colours of 18th and 19th century embroideries were originally very bright but many have faded to pleasing pastel shades; often great quantities of metal thread were used. Napkins were mainly used to clean fingers during meals, but were also used as decoration and as covers. Their designs were consistently inventive.

Physical description

Towel/Napkin, cotton embroidered with silk in double darning, double running in a line and musabak stitch, and metal thread in double darning, fishbone and slanted satin stitch and in plate in fishbone and satin stitch. There is an edging of needlelace along the ends.
There is a narrow border along both ends in which small domed buildings are nestled between cypress trees. The main border is decorated with a series of two-storey domed buildings in blue and pink in front of which is a walled or hedged garden enclosing small pointed bushes, flowers,a small pavillion, palm tree and blossom tree.

Place of Origin

Turkey (made)

Date

1830-1870 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Cotton, embroidered with silk in double darning, double running in a line and musabak, with metal thread in double darning, fishbone and slanted satin stitch, and with plate in fishbone and satin stitch; edging of needle lace along each end

Dimensions

Length: 138.5 cm, Width: 53 cm

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Illustrated in 'Ottoman Embroidery' by Marianne Ellis and Jennifer Wearden (V&A Publication, 2001); plate 100

Labels and date

7, 8 Embroidered napkins
Turkey
1830–70

Embroidery was a popular form of decoration in the Ottoman home. Items such as napkins were embroidered with great quantities of colourful silk and metal thread in inventive designs. Images of ornate houses and gardens (the ideal Ottoman home) were fashionable in the 19th century.

These napkins are embroidered with various stitches including muşabak, meaning ‘netted’, a type of openwork found only on Ottoman embroidery. This can be seen most clearly in the green walls of the buildings in the napkin on the left.

Cotton embroidered with silk and metal thread

Museum nos. T.458, 460-1950
Given by Prof. R.M. Dawkins

Jameel Gallery [20/09/2012]

Materials

Silk thread; Metal thread; Cotton yarn

Techniques

Weaving; Embroidering; Lace making

Subjects depicted

Flowers; Trees; Buildings; Mosque

Categories

Textiles; Embroidery

Collection code

T&F

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Qr_O11415
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