embroidered satin, 1700s, Turkish

Cover of silk embrodiered with silk in atma and couched metal threads (outlines). Made from two widths joined before being embroidered.
There is a narrow border in which a red, white or gold leaf motif alternates. The blue ground is decorated with offset medallions which are slightly pointed ovals, each with a small 'root' at the bottom and two leaves at the top. The medallions are bordered by a line of curling leaves, giving them a serrated appearance. Each medallion contains six leaves around a smaller serrated medallion which contains a single blossom. Some of the medallions are outlined in red and some are outlined in gold and there are other less marked differences. These two colour variations alternate and form diagonal lines of the same colour going from lower left to upper right.

The oldest Ottoman embroideries in the V&A date from the 16th and 17th centuries. They are either whole covers and wall hangings or fragments of them. They are decorated with large-scale, bold designs in red, blue, green and yellow, with some white and black. The oldest designs were based on the intersecting lines of a lattice which enclosed oval compartments filled with flowers. In this example you can only see the compartments. The undecorated ground forms the lattice.

911-1892