A linen hanging embroidered with silk, Turkey, 17th century

Panels from a hanging, linen embroidered with silk in regular surface darning and running stitch (border)
The border consists of a meander formed by an elongated red flower with a white centre linked by a narrow green leaf. To either side of this meander is a blue chintamani.
The field is decorated with undulating, vertical parallel stems which are blue with a central yellow line with round flowerheads. A green stem comes from the blue, bending in the opposite direction and curving round so that the large red and white blossom it bears crosses the blue stem. By curving in this way the green stem encloses a yellow chintamani. This blossom contains a sprig with two pomegranates and a tulip in reserve. A red and white blossom, identical to the ones in the border, grows from near the base of the green stem. There is a black chintamani (corroded) between the large red flowers.

The oldest Ottoman embroideries in the V&A date from the 16th or 17th centuries. They are either whole covers and wall hangings or fragments of them. They are decorated with large-scale, bold designs in red, blue, green and yellow, with some white and black. In the 17th century the main designs were based on wavy parallel stems which run along the length of the fabric.

CIRC.360 to B-1920