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

Three transverse bands embroidered with stylised flower motifs on scrolling stems decorate this linen strip from the end of a scarf or girdle. This type of design would have been marked on the ground fabric ready for the embroiderer to work in a mixture of freestyle and counted stitches. Those chosen for this embroidery were split stitch in yellow silk for the outlines of the motifs and linking stems, counted slanted stitches in dark blue silk to fill in the background, and counted satin stitches in light blue silk to form border lines of small triangles. It is one of the most attractive pieces in the collection and demonstrates how both freestyle and counted thread embroidery stitches were employed at this period to achieve the desired effect.

Three bands, each 3 cm wide and with an identical design of a scrolling tendril and leaves and flowers. The scrolls have yellow outlines worked in split stitch, against a blue background done in slanted counted filling stitch. The bands have a narrow saw-tooth edge worked in counted satin stitch.