Cover thumbnail 1
Not on display

Cover

1600-1799 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

From about the 1720s onwards Ottoman embroidery stopped copying woven designs and became a truly creative art form: new, naturalistic floral motifs were introduced and many of them were depicted in great detail. Some were allowed to sway and sweep across the fabric, some were stylised and many were enriched with metal thread. The colours were originally very bright but have often faded to pleasing pastel shades.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Silk satin, embroidered with silk in atma (laid and couched with a couched line), split stitch and couched threads, and with metal threads couched in a basket weave pattern, padded couching and couched lines
Brief description
embroidered, 1700s, Turkish
Physical description
Cover, silk satin embroidered with silk in atma, split stitch and couched threads and with metal threads couched in a basket weave pattern, padded couching and couched lines (outlines).
Made form three pieces joined before being embroidered.
Red satin ground with a border along four sides containing a floral meander with blue spkiy leaves and a small white flower. The field is decorated with four curling stems which almost form a complete circle - one in each corner. The bear whiteblossoms and blue spiky leaves and curl around a blue ragged flower. There is a relatively smal, round blossom in the centre of the cover, worked in metal thread.
Dimensions
  • Length: 110cm
  • Width: 107.5cm
Style
Subject depicted
Summary
From about the 1720s onwards Ottoman embroidery stopped copying woven designs and became a truly creative art form: new, naturalistic floral motifs were introduced and many of them were depicted in great detail. Some were allowed to sway and sweep across the fabric, some were stylised and many were enriched with metal thread. The colours were originally very bright but have often faded to pleasing pastel shades.
Bibliographic reference
Illustrated in 'Ottoman Embroidery' by Marianne Ellis and Jennifer Wearden (V&A Publications, 2001); plate 79
Collection
Accession number
1017-1898

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Record createdJanuary 16, 2001
Record URL
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