Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt
A selection of 10th to 16th century embroideries from the Newberry collection at the Ashmolean by Marianne Ellis (published Oxford, 2001).
Publications online: 66 objects
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Textile fragment with palmette
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Literature notes
There are a number of circular embroideries in the collection and some, like this one, have been fashioned from another textile. This design of a palmette nestling within a larger palmette, worked in split stitch in three colours, has been chosen to decorate a roundel. Because it is so worn we cannot be sure whether it was made as a cover for a jar but this is its most likely function. Its place of origin is equally difficult to determine but it is different from the various types of embroidery from Egypt and is so similar in colouring and technique to fragment No.11 [EA1984.264] that it was possibly made in Seljuk Anatolia or Syria. -
Details
- Associated place
- Date
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12th - 13th century (1101 - 1300)
Seljuk of Rum Period (1081 - 1307)
- Material and technique
- linen, embroidered with red, yellow, and blue silk; embroidered roundel linen backing; with a hem in flax
- Dimensions
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10 x 10 cm max. (length x width)
along length/width 26 / 26 threads/cm (thread count)
ground fabric 0.02 cm (thread diameter)
additional fibre, embroidery 0.06 cm (thread diameter)
- Material index
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organic › animal › animal product › silk,
- Technique index
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woven › plain woven,assembled › woven › plain woven,
- Object type index
- No. of items
- 1
- Credit line
- Presented by Professor Percy Newberry, 1941.
- Accession no.
- EA1984.89
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Further reading
Ellis, Marianne, Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, in association with Greenville: Curious Works Press, 2001), no. 10 on p. 22, illus. p. 22
Barnes, Ruth and Marianne Ellis, ‘The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries’, 4 vols, 2001, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, cat. vol. ii, illus. vol. i
Location
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- currently in research collection
Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.
Publications online
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Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt
There are a number of circular embroideries in the collection and some, like this one, have been fashioned from another textile. This design of a palmette nestling within a larger palmette, worked in split stitch in three colours, has been chosen to decorate a roundel. Because it is so worn we cannot be sure whether it was made as a cover for a jar but this is its most likely function. Its place of origin is equally difficult to determine but it is different from the various types of embroidery from Egypt and is so similar in colouring and technique to fragment No.11 [EA1984.264] that it was possibly made in Seljuk Anatolia or Syria. -
The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries
A yellow palmette with curving tendrils contains a smaller blue palmette, both with red outlines.
The embroidery is sewn onto a second linen fragment with additional, similar embroidery (fragmentary), shaped into a roundel with a curved hem.
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