Napkin
1800-1899 (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 darning and double running in a line, and with plate in musabak and satin stitch |
Brief description | Towel or napkin, embroidered, Turkish, 1800s. |
Physical description | Towel or Napkin, cotton embroidered with silk in double darning and double running in a line and with plate in musabak and satin stitch. The rolled hem has been oversewn and decorated with spirals of metal thread. The border is deep and there is no minor border along the edge. Metal thread has been used to divide the border into elborate compartments, but as it has also been used for flower stems, it is difficult to distinguish the two apart - the overall impression is of disjointed gold lines, snaking through some pink and blue flowers. Each border contains three pink flowers with metal thread centres which have been placed across the mid-line of the border; these alternate with three pink flowers in profile. Smaller pink and blue flowers and buds are scattered around and there are small green leaves. |
Dimensions |
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Style | |
Credit line | Given by Mr Louis C. G. Clarke |
Subject 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 95 |
Collection | |
Accession number | T.90-1913 |
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Record created | January 19, 2001 |
Record URL |
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