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Textile Panel

1750-1790 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Plain weave cotton embroidered with silk in surface darning on the diagonal and backed with orange silk. The ground is white with vertical rows of red 8-pointed stars alternating with a smaller light blue diamond and the same red star alternating with a yellow diamond. Light blue diagonally placed pointed cartouches containing S- or Z-motifs link the red stars. Both cartouches and stars contain a whirligig of four leaves. There is a border with a light blue ground with a fine black line linking a diagonally placed rectangle and curved leaves. The outlines are worked in blocks in black running stitch.
Colours (Embroidery thread, 2S silk): white, black, dark red, yellow, light blue, blue, red.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silk embroidery on cotton
Brief description
Middle East, Textile; Panel, silk-embroidered cotton, packed design of star-medallions and cartouches, border has Persian dedication inscription dated 1208H (1793) linked with the shrine of Imam Husayn in Kerbala (Iraq), Azerbaijan or NW Iran, possibly 1750-1790
Physical description
Plain weave cotton embroidered with silk in surface darning on the diagonal and backed with orange silk. The ground is white with vertical rows of red 8-pointed stars alternating with a smaller light blue diamond and the same red star alternating with a yellow diamond. Light blue diagonally placed pointed cartouches containing S- or Z-motifs link the red stars. Both cartouches and stars contain a whirligig of four leaves. There is a border with a light blue ground with a fine black line linking a diagonally placed rectangle and curved leaves. The outlines are worked in blocks in black running stitch.
Colours (Embroidery thread, 2S silk): white, black, dark red, yellow, light blue, blue, red.
Dimensions
  • Height: 535mm
  • Width: 525mm
Style
Marks and inscriptions
(Embroidered on the orange silk backing using white thread.)
Translation
This Head Kerchief has been dedicated to the Master of the Martyrs Imam Husain by the daughter of Hajji Zaki Yazdi to be used for all purposes in the days of mourning [Moharram] and to be returned to its owner. May the transgressor be cursed by God. Written in the month of Ramazan in the year 1208 AH.
Gallery label
(20th Century)
PERSIAN; dated 1793.

Silk embroidery on cotton: double darning and double running stitch.
On the lining is embroidered an inscription which reads: "This Headkerchief has been dedicated to the Master of the Martyrs Imam Husein by the daughter of Hajji Zaki Yazdi to be used for all purposes in the days of mourning (Moharram) and to be returned to its owner. May the transgressor be cursed by God. Written in the month of Ramazan in the year 1208 A.H.".

T.184-1929
Object history
Purchased for £15 from Y. Ebrahimoff, 16-17 Devonshire Square, London EC12.
Bibliographic reference
Jennifer Wearden, 'Azerbaijan Embroideries: A Synthesis of Contrasts', Hali 59 (October 1991) pp.102-111: Fig.18.
Collection
Accession number
T.184-1929

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Record createdJuly 16, 2008
Record URL
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