Textile Panel thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Textile Panel

1670-1700 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Plain weave cotton embroidered with silk in cross stitch. The design has been dyed onto the ground using a resist and indigo, with a facing of bias-cut plain weave silk, a backing of plain weave glazed cotton and traces of bronze coloured felt which could be the remains of an original woollen backing or the remains of an interlining which has become felted.
The ground fabric has been pieced, cut and rejoined so that the design is disrupted. The ground is black and the pattern originally consisted of a red quatrefoil device in the centre outlined in white, with blue and red. Around this are rectangular red blocks and large yellow and red lozenges symmetrically arranged. These forms are filled with stylized floral and geometric motifs. There is one red palmette along each end, and a border in which a swastika within an octagon alternates with pointed cartouches.
Colour (Embroidery threads, 2S silk): black, white, yellow, yellow [faded to beige], blue varying in shade from mid- to light, green, red; (Facing): dark blue silk; (Backing): green glazed cotton.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Cotton yarn, silk thread, weaving, embroidering, resist-dyeing, sewing
Brief description
Middle East, Textile; Panel, silk-embroidered cotton, cut down from larger textile, design of lobed medallions and cartouches on black ground, Azerbaijan or NW Iran, 1670-1700
Physical description
Plain weave cotton embroidered with silk in cross stitch. The design has been dyed onto the ground using a resist and indigo, with a facing of bias-cut plain weave silk, a backing of plain weave glazed cotton and traces of bronze coloured felt which could be the remains of an original woollen backing or the remains of an interlining which has become felted.
The ground fabric has been pieced, cut and rejoined so that the design is disrupted. The ground is black and the pattern originally consisted of a red quatrefoil device in the centre outlined in white, with blue and red. Around this are rectangular red blocks and large yellow and red lozenges symmetrically arranged. These forms are filled with stylized floral and geometric motifs. There is one red palmette along each end, and a border in which a swastika within an octagon alternates with pointed cartouches.
Colour (Embroidery threads, 2S silk): black, white, yellow, yellow [faded to beige], blue varying in shade from mid- to light, green, red; (Facing): dark blue silk; (Backing): green glazed cotton.
Dimensions
  • Height: 1265mm
  • Width: 1355mm
The width is complete but judging from the design, the length would have originally been at least 105 cm.
Style
Marks and inscriptions
(Inscription on reverse in ink reading '280 amj'.)
Bibliographic reference
This embroidery belongs to Group 1 sub-group 2 as defined by Jennifer Wearden, 'Azerbaijanian Embroideries: A Synthesis of Contrasts', Hali 59 (October 1991) pp. 102-111. Group 1 sub-group 2 textiles are characterised by cross stitch embroidery in a dark, strong palette with cartouche-like compartments surrounding the central medallion.
Collection
Accession number
295-1884

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Record createdMarch 11, 2008
Record URL
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