Not currently on display at the V&A

Textile Panel

1550-1600 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Plain weave cotton embroidered with silk in surface darning and running stitch, backed with plain weave cotton and faced with bias-cut silk.
There are many patches which disturb the pattern: it is an ogival lattice formed by large red leaves, each containing a stem of flowers and leaves. The ground is black but much of the thread has decayed. Within each segment is an ogival medallion with a white or yellow ground and a central green cypress tree, between a standing woman on the left and a standing man on the right, who wears a turban with a Safavid taj. There is a bird perched on the tree. The segment in the top right hand corner is half white and half yellow.
Where the black embroidered background has worn away, the line drawing can be seen on the plain cotton beneath, showing the pattern for the embroiderer to follow.
The border has a green ground with a red meandering stem, and black and red blossoms alternating with yellow and blue blossoms.
Colours (Embroidery threads, 2S silk): red, black, light blue, green, yellow, white; (Backing): white cotton; (Facing: dark blue silk.

There are many patches taken from other silk embroideries:
[1] Top left hand corner, bottom left hand corner and bottom right hand corner: geometric designs in surface darning on the diagonal. Colours: dark green, white, light blue, red, green, faded pink and black.
[2] Upper central part of the field: large patch with a seated/kneeling figure of a male servant dressed in red with dark green sleeves, a turban and a Safavid taj, offering a shallow bowl with 3 fruits. Below this and above to its right are smaller patches, which may have been from the border of the textile with the servant. The pattern appears to be two alternating lobed medallions: [a] blue ground with red outline containing a left-facing animal in cream - this only appears once although the edge of the roundel appears more often. [b] white lobed medallion outlined with blue containing a left-facing standing male figure with red sleeves and trousers and a white robe. To the right of him is a dark green and red cypress tree with a red bird on top. This appears frequently as a patch across the whole cover. Colours: red, dark blue, dark green, white.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silk embroidery on cotton
Brief description
Middle East, Textile; Panel, patched with fragments from a similar textile, silk-embroidered cotton, design of Safavid-style princely figures in garden settings, set within leafy ogival trellis, NW Iran, 1550-1600
Physical description
Plain weave cotton embroidered with silk in surface darning and running stitch, backed with plain weave cotton and faced with bias-cut silk.
There are many patches which disturb the pattern: it is an ogival lattice formed by large red leaves, each containing a stem of flowers and leaves. The ground is black but much of the thread has decayed. Within each segment is an ogival medallion with a white or yellow ground and a central green cypress tree, between a standing woman on the left and a standing man on the right, who wears a turban with a Safavid taj. There is a bird perched on the tree. The segment in the top right hand corner is half white and half yellow.
Where the black embroidered background has worn away, the line drawing can be seen on the plain cotton beneath, showing the pattern for the embroiderer to follow.
The border has a green ground with a red meandering stem, and black and red blossoms alternating with yellow and blue blossoms.
Colours (Embroidery threads, 2S silk): red, black, light blue, green, yellow, white; (Backing): white cotton; (Facing: dark blue silk.

There are many patches taken from other silk embroideries:
[1] Top left hand corner, bottom left hand corner and bottom right hand corner: geometric designs in surface darning on the diagonal. Colours: dark green, white, light blue, red, green, faded pink and black.
[2] Upper central part of the field: large patch with a seated/kneeling figure of a male servant dressed in red with dark green sleeves, a turban and a Safavid taj, offering a shallow bowl with 3 fruits. Below this and above to its right are smaller patches, which may have been from the border of the textile with the servant. The pattern appears to be two alternating lobed medallions: [a] blue ground with red outline containing a left-facing animal in cream - this only appears once although the edge of the roundel appears more often. [b] white lobed medallion outlined with blue containing a left-facing standing male figure with red sleeves and trousers and a white robe. To the right of him is a dark green and red cypress tree with a red bird on top. This appears frequently as a patch across the whole cover. Colours: red, dark blue, dark green, white.
Dimensions
  • Height: 1095mm
  • Width: 1100mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
(Label: printed paper label sewn onto one corner: 'International Exhibition of Persian Art, London, 1931 No. V.55'.)
Bibliographic reference
Jennifer Wearden, 'Azerbaijan Embroideries: A Synthesis of Contrasts', Hali 59 (October 1991) pp.102-111: Fig.10.
Collection
Accession number
975-1889

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Record createdApril 8, 2008
Record URL
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