Kerchief with bands of linked triangles
Details
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Title
Kerchief with bands of linked triangles
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Associated place
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Date
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Material and technique
linen, embroidered with blue and dark-blue silk; with rolled hems in flax
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Material index
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Technique index
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Object type
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Dimensions
25 x 24.5 cm (length x width)
along length/width 22 / 22 threads/cm (thread count)
ground fabric 0.05 cm (thread diameter)
additional fibre, embroidery 0.04 cm (thread diameter) -
No. of items
1
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Credit line
Presented by Professor Percy Newberry, 1941.
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Museum location
Museum department
Eastern Art
Accession no.
EA1984.400
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Catalogue text
A virtually square cloth has narrow bands as borders; all bands have the same design of linked triangles worked in double running stitch, and fine cross stitch borders, but the colour of each alternates between medium and dark blue.
All four sides have a rolled hem whipped with flax thread.In: Barnes, Ruth and Marianne Ellis, ‘The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries’, 4 vols, 2001, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum
The embroidered bands on this linen square are worked in a double-sided stitch, reinforcing the impression that it is the equivalent of today's pocket handkerchief. At this period valued objects were wrapped in a sleeve kerchief, mandil kumm, and kept safe in the wide sleeves of garments which acted as pockets. According to a record saved from the Cairo Genizah hoard of documents, one sleeve kerchief was considered sufficiently important to be listed in the dowry of a bride who lived in mid-12th century Fustat (now in southern Cairo). Other references to sleeve kerchiefs make it clear that they were made for sale in the late 12th century; a record dated 1225 specifies that a sleeve kerchief sold in the bazaar of the clothiers was embroidered.
In: Ellis, Marianne, Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, in association with Greenville: Curious Works Press, 2001)
Further reading
Barnes, Ruth and Marianne Ellis, ‘The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries’, 4 vols, 2001, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, vol. iii, vol. i
Ellis, Marianne, Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, in association with Greenville: Curious Works Press, 2001), no. 31 on p. 49, p. 38, illus. p. 49
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