Saddle Cover
c. 1880
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Warp: wool; dark blue; Z2S; not depressed; 36 knots per inch.
Weft: wool with white cotton; 7 colours - dark blue, red, dark red, yellow, green, light blue, white; wool: Z2S; cotton: Z3S.
Side finish: one cord oversewn with green and red wool.
End finish: lower - warp threads gathered in groups and woven in four strand braid terminating in a tassel decorated with red; upper - returned warp around a cord oversewn with red and blue wool.
Design:
Field: dark blue with 2 bands filled with stylised bud and animal motifs. Lower band with 12 horned quadrupeds decorated with a smaller pair of the same and surrounded by smaller animals and flowers. Upper band has 2 bands of peacocks - lower: 18 upright and facing towards centre; upper: 12 peacocks woven sideways.
Borders - 4 borders outwards from field: 1 - green lattice in soumak worked over plain weave in red and yellow; 2 - white ground with linked diamond pattern and hook-shaped motifs in red; 3 - green ground with double reciprocal diamond pattern in white and outlined in red; 4 - weft float pattern of diamond in a square in red and white.
Weft: wool with white cotton; 7 colours - dark blue, red, dark red, yellow, green, light blue, white; wool: Z2S; cotton: Z3S.
Side finish: one cord oversewn with green and red wool.
End finish: lower - warp threads gathered in groups and woven in four strand braid terminating in a tassel decorated with red; upper - returned warp around a cord oversewn with red and blue wool.
Design:
Field: dark blue with 2 bands filled with stylised bud and animal motifs. Lower band with 12 horned quadrupeds decorated with a smaller pair of the same and surrounded by smaller animals and flowers. Upper band has 2 bands of peacocks - lower: 18 upright and facing towards centre; upper: 12 peacocks woven sideways.
Borders - 4 borders outwards from field: 1 - green lattice in soumak worked over plain weave in red and yellow; 2 - white ground with linked diamond pattern and hook-shaped motifs in red; 3 - green ground with double reciprocal diamond pattern in white and outlined in red; 4 - weft float pattern of diamond in a square in red and white.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Brief description | Saddle cover, soumak flatweave, deisgn of two horizontal bands with animals and birds, possibly Shiraz, Iran, c.1850-1880. |
| Physical description | Warp: wool; dark blue; Z2S; not depressed; 36 knots per inch. Weft: wool with white cotton; 7 colours - dark blue, red, dark red, yellow, green, light blue, white; wool: Z2S; cotton: Z3S. Side finish: one cord oversewn with green and red wool. End finish: lower - warp threads gathered in groups and woven in four strand braid terminating in a tassel decorated with red; upper - returned warp around a cord oversewn with red and blue wool. Design: Field: dark blue with 2 bands filled with stylised bud and animal motifs. Lower band with 12 horned quadrupeds decorated with a smaller pair of the same and surrounded by smaller animals and flowers. Upper band has 2 bands of peacocks - lower: 18 upright and facing towards centre; upper: 12 peacocks woven sideways. Borders - 4 borders outwards from field: 1 - green lattice in soumak worked over plain weave in red and yellow; 2 - white ground with linked diamond pattern and hook-shaped motifs in red; 3 - green ground with double reciprocal diamond pattern in white and outlined in red; 4 - weft float pattern of diamond in a square in red and white. |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Bought from the collection of Gaston de Saint-Maurice (1831-1905) in 1884. Saint-Maurice displayed his extensive art collection at the 1878 Paris exhibition, in a gallery entitled L'Egypte des Khalifes. This was part of an official sequence of displays celebrating the history of Egypt, presented by the Egyptian state at this international event. Saint-Maurice held a position at the Khedival court, and had lived in Cairo in 1868-1878. Following the exhibition, Saint-Maurice offered his collection for sale to the South Kensington Museum (today the V&A). |
| Production | Possibly Shiraz |
| Associations | |
| Bibliographic reference | Similar object: J. Housego, Tribal Rigs: An Introduction to the Weaving of the Tribes of Iran (New York: Van Nostrand Rheinold Co. 1978): pl. 102; I. Bennett, Rugs and Carpets of the World (New York: A & A Publications 1977): 252-3; C. Bier (ed.), Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart: Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran, 16th-19th Centuries (Washington: The Textile Museum 1987): 322. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1015-1884 |
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| Record created | November 12, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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