Textile fragment with rosette and scrolls

Title

Textile fragment with rosette and scrolls
Associated place

Egypt (find spot)

Fustat (possible) (possible find spot)

Near East (place of creation)
Date

10th - 15th century AD
Material and technique

linen, embroidered with blue silk and white flax; overcast stitching and drawn-thread openwork in remains of yellow silk
Material index

linen;

silk;

flax
Technique index

plain woven;

embroidered;

openwork
Object type

textile
Dimensions

20.5 x 18.5 cm max. (length x width)
along length/width 24 / 22 threads/cm (thread count)
embroidery square 14 x 14.5 cm (length x width)
ground fabric 0.02 cm (thread diameter)
additional fibre, embroidery 0.05 cm (thread diameter)
No. of items

1
Credit line

Presented by Professor Percy Newberry, 1941.
Museum location

not on display
Museum department

Eastern Art
Accession no.

EA1984.286

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Catalogue text

A large square measuring 14 cm x 14.5 cm contains a stylised, elaborate blue rosette with four large and four small petals, each of which is filled with scrolls. At the centre of the flower head is a small quatrefoil. The scrolls are the unembroidered ground fabric, while the blue embroidery defines the outlines and background. It is worked in slanted counted filling stitch worked on the diagonal. The four corners of the square are filled with drawn-thread work with very few remains of yellow silk embroidery, as well as flowers embroidered in undyed flax darning stitch. The square has a border on all four sides, containing small cartouches and tendrils against a background filled with blue slanted counted filling stitch embroidery.

In: Barnes, Ruth and Marianne Ellis, ‘The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries’, 4 vols, 2001, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum

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