Prayer mat, yellow silk and cotton satin embroidered and quilted with silk, backed and faced with roller-printed cotton.
: Silk and cotton satin embroidered with silk in straight stitches, chain and running stitch [probably back stitch], padded and quilted, backed with roller printed plain weave cotton and faced with roller printed plain weave cotton; unfinished.
Yellow satin ground made from two pieces: in the left hand piece the warp runs the length of the mat; in the large right hand piece the warp runs across the mat. Because of this, the light is reflected differently – shiny in one part and dull in the other. The design has been printed in dark ink on the satin, including lines for the quilting pattern, but the embroidery is incomplete. It seems that the lower section was embroidered but not completed and that an attempt was made later, and by another hand, to embroider the upper part and add bits to the lower [in red buttonhole stitch]. Red, blue and green silk were used in the upper part – these are different from the threads used in the lower half.
The mat has an incomplete green meander border on all 4 sides, bearing buds and leaves in a variety of colours [A]. A wide band travels up both sides and along the top [not along the bottom edge], again unfinished, of a generous but narrow green meander bearing carnation fans, buds and another ‘spiky’ flowerhead outlined in blue or light green and infilled in various colours mostly now faded to white, beige and light brown, as well as red. The border [A] is repeated on the 3 sides. There is no quilting in these sections. The central area should be visually divided into two:
[1] lower half – mostly finished. Offset rows of an ovoid shape formed by a flowering plant in red, pale and dark blue, faded pink/re and 2 shades of green alternating with small curving plant stems in similar colouring. Quilted with yellow silk in a lozenge pattern.
[2] upper half – mostly unfinished. A niche form has been partially outlined in pale blue and green then completed in red. The inside of the niche is largely unquilted and unworked despite the underdrawing. It appears the stems were embroidered but left and later small elements in a deep red silk were added including buttonhole embellishments. At the arch apex a small roundel has been outlined in white chain stitch.
The spandrels have a pattern of lozenge lattice outlined in 2 shades of blue and the underdrawing shows a small floral element of which only 3 or 4 outlines have been worked.
Threads: 2S silk: 3 greens, 3 blues, red, white [faded from pink?], pink, light brown [faded from red?].
Backing: white ground roller printed with a dense curving vertical meander with a brown-black stem with numerous small leaves and stylized blossoms and buds in blue, red, orange, yellow and green.
Facing: red ground with a 4-petalled [heart-shaped] flower outlined in pink and infilled with a pink lined square containing 5 green dots; at each of the 4 corners a white trefoil motif.