embroidered, 1600s, Turkish

Hanging, linen embroidered with silk in surface darning on the diagonal over three threads and running stitch (border). It is made from three widths joined after being embroidered.
The field is divided into large and gently pointed ogival compartments by a lattice which is formed by a red stem in which a thin stem with many pairs of trefoil leaves in left in reserve. Half way along each section the red stem is interrupted by a crescent-shaped green motif. There is a large black and white crown at the point where the stems of the lattice meet and blue leaves containing a tulip in reserve come from the red stem. Each ogival compartment contains the three circles of the chintamani design at the top and bottom with a large artichoke motif in the centre. Within this motif is a red and green tulip and small tulips and flowers in reserve.
The border is a thick zigzagging stem worked in red with a reserve design of a narrow stem with three round flowers. Pairs of leaves in the sequence white, blue and then green, come from the red stem.

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 patterns, such as this one, are made from intersecting lines which enclose spaces filled with flowers.

155-1893