Not on display

Prayer Mat

1811 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Silk satin embroidered with silk in running and straight stitches, quilted, backed with block printed cotton and faced with woven silk.

A greenish-yellow ground. A framing band [a] of a floral green stemmed meander holding alternate orange and light blue or orange and grey and brown flowerheads. Along the top and two sides, a wider band of red and orange five-petalled rosettes alternating with six-petalled buds in dark and light blue and orange, accompanied by serrated green and yellow and brown leaf forms, and red and orange isolated buds, all on ground quilted with green silk in a scale-like pattern. A repeat of [a] on these three sides leads into the central panel, which is divided into a lobed arch and spandrels. The arch contains offset rows of isolated floral motifs echoing the border colouring. The ground is quilted with the scale-like pattern. The arch is delineated in olive brown with a multi-coloured chevron infill. Just below the apex of the arch is a roundel containing an inscription and the date. The spandrels are decorated with a lattice formed by simple leaves; within each lozenge is a small flowering plant. There is evidence of under-drawing in black ink.

Embroidery Thread: green, orange, yellow, light blue, grey, brown, red, dark blue; 2S
Backing: pieced; plain weave ochre-yellow cotton resist and block printed with off set rows of a floral motif in white, black, green, blue and red. There is a white semi-circular flowerhead with a red centre and over this is a pair of small leaves and three short stems with red buds.
Facing: bias-cut, black plain weave silk.

Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
cotton yarn, silk thread, weaving, embroidering, resist and block printing, sewing, quilting
Brief description
Prayer mat, silk backed with cotton, Iran, Qajar period, 1811
Physical description
Silk satin embroidered with silk in running and straight stitches, quilted, backed with block printed cotton and faced with woven silk.

A greenish-yellow ground. A framing band [a] of a floral green stemmed meander holding alternate orange and light blue or orange and grey and brown flowerheads. Along the top and two sides, a wider band of red and orange five-petalled rosettes alternating with six-petalled buds in dark and light blue and orange, accompanied by serrated green and yellow and brown leaf forms, and red and orange isolated buds, all on ground quilted with green silk in a scale-like pattern. A repeat of [a] on these three sides leads into the central panel, which is divided into a lobed arch and spandrels. The arch contains offset rows of isolated floral motifs echoing the border colouring. The ground is quilted with the scale-like pattern. The arch is delineated in olive brown with a multi-coloured chevron infill. Just below the apex of the arch is a roundel containing an inscription and the date. The spandrels are decorated with a lattice formed by simple leaves; within each lozenge is a small flowering plant. There is evidence of under-drawing in black ink.

Embroidery Thread: green, orange, yellow, light blue, grey, brown, red, dark blue; 2S
Backing: pieced; plain weave ochre-yellow cotton resist and block printed with off set rows of a floral motif in white, black, green, blue and red. There is a white semi-circular flowerhead with a red centre and over this is a pair of small leaves and three short stems with red buds.
Facing: bias-cut, black plain weave silk.

Dimensions
  • Length: 103cm (Note: proper left)
  • Width: 681mm
  • Length: 104cm (Note: proper right)
Style
Marks and inscriptions
Inscription and date embroidered in the roundel.
Translation
'Glory be to my Exalted Lord and praise belong to him.'
Bibliographic references
  • Illustration of the backing. Jennifer Wearden, Persian printed Cottons (Webb and Bower, 1989): Plate 20.
  • Jennifer Wearden and Patricia L. Baker, Iranian Textiles (London: V&A Publishing, 2010) 60, Fig. 43.
Collection
Accession number
1410-1900

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Record createdJuly 15, 2008
Record URL
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