embroidered, 1876, Persian

Part of a tea cosy, woollen twill embroidered with silk in straight, stem, buttonhole and couching.
Displayed behind glass.
Red woollen ground marked out with an oval which extends around the embroidery and may have marked a cutting or a hemming line. The embroidery is slightly irregular, but oval in intention. In the centre is a complex lozenge with a pendant top and bottom, there is a rosette within a circle in the centre and 4 outward facing cypress trees and 4 pairs of curving botehs around it. Four delicate floral sprays with fine white stems are on the outside of the lozenge and inside an oval border edged on the inside with small diagonal leaves. A wider border has inward facing floral sprigs on the red ground and the final border is packed with a green undulating stem and small blue flowers outlined with white.
Colours: green, red, white, blue, purple, orange.

In 1877, Nasruddin Shah, the Qajar ruler of Iran, approved a donation of contemporary textiles and carpets to the South Kensington Museum. Organised via Robert Murdoch Smith and Qajar minister Emin al-Mulk, the donation consisted of 14 carpets and 60 other examples of textiles, and was directly intended to advertise Iran's textile industry to British consumers. The accompanying letter to the Museum's Lords of Committee outlined the strategy "We have no doubt whatever that the English Nation has always viewed our manufactures in a kind and friendly manner; and although the Persian Arts have not attained a high rank, nevertheless they have been viewed with a friendly eye and examined in a partial spirit. Such being the case, H.I.M. the Shah resolved that a small quantity of the produce of this country - manufactures by Persian workmen of the present day - should be presented to the said Museum."

Kerman

870-1877