Breeches thumbnail 1
Breeches thumbnail 2
Not currently on display at the V&A

Breeches

1800-1850 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

a pair of knee-length breeches, plain weave cotton embroidered with cotton in tambour or chain stitch, backed with resist dyed and printed plain weave cotton and padded, possibly with felt, with leather and with a belt and metal buckle.
A rhomboid shape of blue cotton forms the back, back legs and front crotch and stomach, with two roughly rectangular shapes for the shaped front legs and front hips. There are two wide bands forming the cuffs which go two-thirds of the way round the leg below the knee area. The front thigh sections have been stiffened [ note the brown stitching which may be keeping this in place around the knee]. The method used cannot be ascertained without causing damage to the object. Elsewhere the breeches have a layer of fibres between the top layer of cotton and the backing. This may be wool or hair and may have originally been felt.
All the seams are protected by leather strips. The waistband and belt is also leather and is 11 cm deep.
The blue cotton is embroidered with white and yellow cotton in a series of panels containing stylized flowering forms of rosettes and tri-petalled buds, framed with double meanders and tightly undulating lines while the inner legs are decorated with a lattice of stems. All worked in heavy white cotton thread with yellow used for the centres of some rosettes. The leather strips also have simple embroidered decoration in white and brown [?] cotton.
Backing: Inside the right leg by the lower edge: heavy plain weave red cotton resist dyed with a pattern of 4-petalled rosettes in yellow. Inside the left leg by the lower edge: heavy plain weave cotton printed with at least two different designs [a] narrow white and blue stripes bearing small floral motifs in red and yellow; [b] red ground with an indeterminate white motif with details in dark brown and red.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
cotton yarn, weaving, embroidering, printing, sewing, leather.
Brief description
Middle East, Textile; Trousers, embroidered leather, wrestler's breeches, Iran, 1800-1850
Physical description
a pair of knee-length breeches, plain weave cotton embroidered with cotton in tambour or chain stitch, backed with resist dyed and printed plain weave cotton and padded, possibly with felt, with leather and with a belt and metal buckle.
A rhomboid shape of blue cotton forms the back, back legs and front crotch and stomach, with two roughly rectangular shapes for the shaped front legs and front hips. There are two wide bands forming the cuffs which go two-thirds of the way round the leg below the knee area. The front thigh sections have been stiffened [ note the brown stitching which may be keeping this in place around the knee]. The method used cannot be ascertained without causing damage to the object. Elsewhere the breeches have a layer of fibres between the top layer of cotton and the backing. This may be wool or hair and may have originally been felt.
All the seams are protected by leather strips. The waistband and belt is also leather and is 11 cm deep.
The blue cotton is embroidered with white and yellow cotton in a series of panels containing stylized flowering forms of rosettes and tri-petalled buds, framed with double meanders and tightly undulating lines while the inner legs are decorated with a lattice of stems. All worked in heavy white cotton thread with yellow used for the centres of some rosettes. The leather strips also have simple embroidered decoration in white and brown [?] cotton.
Backing: Inside the right leg by the lower edge: heavy plain weave red cotton resist dyed with a pattern of 4-petalled rosettes in yellow. Inside the left leg by the lower edge: heavy plain weave cotton printed with at least two different designs [a] narrow white and blue stripes bearing small floral motifs in red and yellow; [b] red ground with an indeterminate white motif with details in dark brown and red.
Dimensions
  • Maximum length: 68cm
  • Waist circumference: 80cm
Bibliographic references
  • Patricia L Baker 'Wrestling at the Victoria and Albert Museum' in IRAN volume XXXV 1997 pp. 73-78
  • Published in 'Iranian Textiles' by Jennifer Wearden and Patricia L Baker (V&A Publishing, 2010) Plate 72. Both front and back views.
  • John Curtis, Ina Sarikhani Sandmann and Tim Stanley, Epic Iran: 5000 Years of Culture, London: V&A Publishing, 2021, p.160, cat. no. 125.
Collection
Accession number
841-1876

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Record createdNovember 15, 2000
Record URL
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