Middle East, Textile;

Bath Wrap, part, linen embroidered with silk in double running in steps and in double running variations (outlines) and with metal thread in double darning on the diagonal and counted satin stitch.
The ends are decorated with a narrow band worked in metal thread. Above this is a very deep embroidered border with four offsrt bands each containing three 8-petalled pink flowers, each with a gold centre. Between these flowers are diagonal sprays with a gold tulip-like centre and 7 small blue flowers. The alignment of these sprays is not always on the diagonal which suggests that the pink flowers were drawn or printed first and then the blue sprays were fitted into the available space.

A bath wrap was a large cloth made from three widths of fabric. People who visited the hamman (public baths) would wrap them round their bodies when they rested after bathing. From about the 1720s onwards Ottoman embroidery stopped copying woven designs and became a truly creative art form. Designers introduced new, lifelike floral decorations, many of which were very detailed. They allowed some floral decorations to sway and sweep across the fabric. Some were stylised. All decorations were worked in soft colours often enriched with metal thread. The colours of many 18th century embroideries were originally very bright but they have faded to pleasing pastel shades.

327 to B-1896