Not currently on display at the V&A

Purse

1800-1899 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Purse of embroidered plain weave white cotton with silks in a variety of straight stitches and white work. Lined with plain weave cotton and trimmed with silk and metal thread braid with a drawstring of braided cord and a tassel of silk, metal thread and glass beads.

The cotton purse is oblong in form and edged with an embroidered zig-zag followed by a row of diagonal stitches edged with either double running or back stitch. This frames the central design of a lobed lozenge containing a floral element and surrounded by leaves, stems and rosettes topped by a line with a double meander. The design is repeated on the other face. The under drawing in blue is visible in places.

The open end is trimmed with one centimetre of black silk braid decorated along one edge with rows of metal thread made of silver strip on a beige silk core and silver-gilt on an orange silk core. Stitched onto this braid is a white silk braided cord which forms loops and the drawstring. The drawstring terminates in two long tassels. Extra silk threads have been added to form a nodule of loose strands which have been bound in place using silver metal thread broken by a narrow circle of white glass beads before expanding into a lobed cup form of silver metal thread containing other threads of silk around a central 'tongue' of thick silver metal thread.

The embroidery thread is of white silk, S-twisted, which may have been occasionally worked over padding. The metal thread in the braid is of silver strip close Z-wound on beige silk core and silver-gilt strip close Z-wound on orange silk core. The metal thread in the tassel is of silver strip close Z-wound on white silk core.
Backed in white cotton.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Embroidered cotton with silks, metal thread, glass beads, silk braid, silver-gilt strip
Brief description
Purse of embroidered cotton with silks, Iran, 1800-1899
Physical description
Purse of embroidered plain weave white cotton with silks in a variety of straight stitches and white work. Lined with plain weave cotton and trimmed with silk and metal thread braid with a drawstring of braided cord and a tassel of silk, metal thread and glass beads.

The cotton purse is oblong in form and edged with an embroidered zig-zag followed by a row of diagonal stitches edged with either double running or back stitch. This frames the central design of a lobed lozenge containing a floral element and surrounded by leaves, stems and rosettes topped by a line with a double meander. The design is repeated on the other face. The under drawing in blue is visible in places.

The open end is trimmed with one centimetre of black silk braid decorated along one edge with rows of metal thread made of silver strip on a beige silk core and silver-gilt on an orange silk core. Stitched onto this braid is a white silk braided cord which forms loops and the drawstring. The drawstring terminates in two long tassels. Extra silk threads have been added to form a nodule of loose strands which have been bound in place using silver metal thread broken by a narrow circle of white glass beads before expanding into a lobed cup form of silver metal thread containing other threads of silk around a central 'tongue' of thick silver metal thread.

The embroidery thread is of white silk, S-twisted, which may have been occasionally worked over padding. The metal thread in the braid is of silver strip close Z-wound on beige silk core and silver-gilt strip close Z-wound on orange silk core. The metal thread in the tassel is of silver strip close Z-wound on white silk core.
Backed in white cotton.
Dimensions
  • Length: 13.5cm
  • Width: 10cm
  • Length: 5.5in
  • Width: 4in
Credit line
Given by Major R. Jackson
Collection
Accession number
T.155-1966

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Record createdAugust 6, 2008
Record URL
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