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

Hanging, linen embroidered with silk in surface darning on the diagonal and running stitch (border).
The field is decorated with undulating parallel stems each of which has been divided vertically into two offset rows of red and white reciprocal triangles. The stems are broken by large upward-facing segmented tulips coloured in bands of red, yellow and blue. Thin green stems grow from the parallel ones: some are small and bear one or two blossoms, a more substantial one grows from below each tulip - this has a red flower, and red and blue flower and a large, downward-pointing fruit which is outlined in red and divided into small yellow or blue triangles. Below this fruit is a blue and red chintamani.

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. In this example, the designer has given equal emphasis to the stems and the flowers.

CIRC.695&A-1923