Textile fragment with bands of inverted hooks, flowers, and triangles
Details
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Title
Textile fragment with bands of inverted hooks, flowers, and triangles
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Associated place
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Date
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Material and technique
linen, embroidered with blue cotton
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Material index
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Technique index
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Object type
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Dimensions
31 x 14.5 cm max. (length x width)
along length/width 18 / 18 threads/cm (thread count)
ground fabric 0.05 cm (thread diameter)
additional fibre, embroidery 0.06 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.
EA1984.154
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Catalogue text
Three bands are grouped together, and a fourth one runs parallel. The latter is identical to the central band of the group of three. It contains inverted hook motifs, eight-petalled flowers, and small triangles. The two bands on either side of the central one are narrow and contain small darts and s-shapes. The embroidery provides the background.
In: Barnes, Ruth and Marianne Ellis, ‘The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries’, 4 vols, 2001, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum
The patterns on this fragment are almost the same as some worked on sampler No. 24 [EA1984.490]. The most noticeable difference is that eight-pointed stars alternate with S-shapes on this embroidery and with Zs on the sampler. It is interesting to see how the decoration has been built up, presumably from a sampler like No.24, by selecting two narrow bands to lie on either side of the wider one and then repeating the wide one again for emphasis. The narrow bands balance each other with S-shapes on one and Z-shapes on the other. This predilection for symmetry is one of the hallmarks of Mamluk embroidery.
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. ii, vol. i
Ellis, Marianne, Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, in association with Greenville: Curious Works Press, 2001), no. 27 on p. 43, illus. p. 43
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