Textile fragment with heraldic blazon
Details
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Title
Textile fragment with heraldic blazon
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Associated place
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Date
late 14th century
Mamluk Period (1250 - 1517) -
Material and technique
linen, dyed blue, and embroidered with red and yellow silk
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Material index
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Technique index
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Object type
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Dimensions
9.5 x 6.5 cm (length x width)
along length/width 18 / 16 threads/cm (thread count)
ground fabric 0.05 cm (thread diameter)
additional fibre, embroidery 0.05 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.
EA1984.86
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Catalogue text
A small blazon with a three-tier division; the blazon is shield-shaped. The upper and lower tier are red, the middle one yellow. The middle tier shows a red cup, the lower one a yellow rhombus, representing the 'buqja' (napkin) associated with the master of the robe.
The measurements given above follow the weave, which is diagonal to the design. The height of the blazon is 10 cm.In: Ellis, Marianne, Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, in association with Greenville: Curious Works Press, 2001)
This is an example of a composite blazon which developed from the earlier simple ones depicting a single motif. The field has been divided into three compartments: a red chalice has been placed on the central field and a yellow diamond placed beneath. These indicate the amiral offices of the cup- bearer (saki) and the master of the robes (jamdar). Intriguingly, these Islamic devices are contained within a “kite-shaped " shield, a type of shield seen on a Fatimid 12th century drawing of a siege where both sides appear to be equipped with them. One theory is that they were introduced by the Crusader armies. The only recorded example of this particular composite blazon belonged to Amir Kumushbugha al-Hamawi from Syria, dated 1381.
The motif is worked diagonally across the weave of the ground fabric in a slanted counted stitch. In use therefore, the blazon would have lain in a diagonal direction so its most likely position would have been on the corner of a cloth. It could have been part of a cover similar to those depicted in manuscript illustrations, in which Mamluk horsemen are seen performing military exercises on horses wearing decorated saddlecloths.In: Barnes, Ruth and Marianne Ellis, ‘The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries’, 4 vols, 2001, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum
Further reading
Barnes, Ruth and Marianne Ellis, ‘The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries’, 4 vols, 2001, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, vol. ii, vol. i p. 16 n. 3, vol. i
Ellis, Marianne, Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, in association with Greenville: Curious Works Press, 2001), no. 54 on p. 80, illus. p. 81
Reference URL
