Bed Hanging
mid 20th century (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Bed hanging (kil) of embroidered and quilted cotton. Ground fabric of white, fairly coarse cotton, backed with and quilted onto a coarse white cotton lining. The embroidery is worked in coloured floss silks, mainly two yellows, orange, green and dark blue, with some small mirrors inset. The work is carried out in mainly darning and button-hole stitch, with some interlacing. The design consists of three geometrical motifs, a square one in the centre of the cloth, and a circular medallion repeated on either side of it. The square contains a central star motif, outlined with a series of borders, e.g. one of mirrors, one of interlaced work, and a spiky row on the outside. The circular medallions each contain a large stylised flowerhead surrounded by a border of mirrors, with the same spiky motif on the outside, scattered about the cloth are elephants with howdahs, human figures, birds and animals, flowerheads, whirligigs, and unidentifiable motifs. The background is quilted in widely spaced circles in a simple running stitch in blue and red. The hanging has a double border of triangles, one red, one blue. The hanging is edged with appliqué bindings, successively red, green, yellow and blue and red again on the outside.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Quilted cotton, embroidered with floss silks in herringbone-stitch and running-stitch |
Brief description | Bed hanging (kil), qulited cotton, embroidered with floss silks; herringbone-stitch, running-stitch, from the Morvi region, Saurashtra, Gujarat, India, mid 20th century |
Physical description | Bed hanging (kil) of embroidered and quilted cotton. Ground fabric of white, fairly coarse cotton, backed with and quilted onto a coarse white cotton lining. The embroidery is worked in coloured floss silks, mainly two yellows, orange, green and dark blue, with some small mirrors inset. The work is carried out in mainly darning and button-hole stitch, with some interlacing. The design consists of three geometrical motifs, a square one in the centre of the cloth, and a circular medallion repeated on either side of it. The square contains a central star motif, outlined with a series of borders, e.g. one of mirrors, one of interlaced work, and a spiky row on the outside. The circular medallions each contain a large stylised flowerhead surrounded by a border of mirrors, with the same spiky motif on the outside, scattered about the cloth are elephants with howdahs, human figures, birds and animals, flowerheads, whirligigs, and unidentifiable motifs. The background is quilted in widely spaced circles in a simple running stitch in blue and red. The hanging has a double border of triangles, one red, one blue. The hanging is edged with appliqué bindings, successively red, green, yellow and blue and red again on the outside. |
Dimensions |
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Object history | Transferred from the Circulation department. These objects (IS.6-1977 to IS.41-1977) were in Circulation's travelling exhibition, "The Arts of Village India". They formerly bore the numbers C24959 to C24994. C24984, a cradle-cloth, is missing-stolen at Birkenhead in 1973. (Registered File number 1976/616) Formerly numbered C24992. |
Historical context | The hanging was intended to be hung from the side of a bed (charpai). |
Production | From the Ahir community, Morvi region, Saurashtra, Gujarat. |
Subjects depicted | |
Bibliographic reference | Indian embroidery / Rosemary Crill ; photography by Richard Davis. London: V&A Publications, 1999 Number: 185177310X, 1851772944 (pbk.)
Cat. No. 91, p. 20, illus. p. 96. |
Collection | |
Accession number | IS.39-1977 |
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Record created | June 25, 2009 |
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