Towel
1800-1875 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
At the end of the 18th century embroidery designs began to develop into rigid and heavily stylised borders for towels and napkins. The colours of 18th and 19th century embroideries were originally very bright but many have faded to pleasing pastel shades; often great quantities of metal thread were used. Napkins were mainly used to clean fingers during meals, but were also used as decoration and as covers. Their designs were consistently inventive.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Cotton, embroidered with silk in double running stitch variations and combinations and in musabak, and with metal thread in double running stitch variations and combinations and eyelets |
| Brief description | towel or napkin, embroidered, 1800s, Turkish |
| Physical description | Towel/Napkin, cotton embroidered with silk in double running stitch variations and combinations and mushabak stitch and with metal thread in double running stitch variations and combinations and eyelets. There is a border at either end in which a house-like structure alternates with a heavily stylised floral arrangement between two trees. Below this there is a narrow border of small floral motifs. This border continues up the sides of the main border. The ends have been oversewn with metal thread. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | At the end of the 18th century embroidery designs began to develop into rigid and heavily stylised borders for towels and napkins. The colours of 18th and 19th century embroideries were originally very bright but many have faded to pleasing pastel shades; often great quantities of metal thread were used. Napkins were mainly used to clean fingers during meals, but were also used as decoration and as covers. Their designs were consistently inventive. |
| Bibliographic reference | Illustrated in 'Ottoman Embroidery' by Marianne Ellis and Jennifer Wearden (V&A Publications, 2001); plate 147 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 2024-1876 |
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| Record created | January 5, 2001 |
| Record URL |
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