Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

A band of three lion blazons, blue with red outlines, is sewn onto a field of swirling rosettes and intersecting circles. The rosettes are blue, the circles have red chevrons at their intersection with each other.

The fragment is similar to EA1984.60 and EA1984.61, although the direction of the lions is reversed. Laid threads are couched down over surface satin filling stitches. Outlines are worked in stem stitch.

This lion is one of three embroidered on a wide border sewn onto the bottom of a large fragment, probably a hanging. The textile is now very worn but he still presents a jaunty appearance with his raised front paw and uplifted tail. The lion in Mamluk heraldry was associated with the blazon of the Mamluk Sultan Baybars, who ruled from 1260-77, so we can assume that the embroidery dates from the early Mamluk period. On this fragment the lion and its circular frame have been worked in the same type of couching as for No.45 [EA1984.76], and its animated appearance has been increased by adding outlines in stem stitch in red silk.