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

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

Browse: 1 object

Reference URL

Actions

Send e-mail

Contact us about this object

Send e-mail

Send to a friend

Textile fragment with interlocking hexagons and diamond-shapes

Location

    • Lower ground floor | Room 5 | Textiles

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

  • Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt by Marianne Ellis

    Embroideries and Samplers from Islamic Egypt

    Because they are worked in different stitches and colours, the two embroideries illustrated (Nos. 33 [EA1984.463], 34 [EA1984.272]) look very different. However, they share the same geometric pattern, and only differ in the details within the diamond shapes. The basic unit is a Y-shape arranged in offset rows like the Y-fret patterns that decorate 14th century Mamluk Egyptian and Syrian metal basins and trays. The design appears on a tunic worn by a Mamluk courtier on the basin known as the Baptistère of St. Louis, now in the Louvre, Paris. To create the pattern on these embroidered fragments, every alternate row of the Y shapes has been omitted, resulting in the formation of diamond shapes within elongated hexagons. The pieces provide an interesting comparison between the effects produced by using different embroidery stitches. This one is worked in pattern darning in running stitch that is so similar in appearance to weaving with a supplementary weft. The result is pleasing but does not exploit fully the freedom offered by needle and thread. The stitch was much used on Islamic medieval textiles judging from the large proportion of the Newberry embroideries worked in it.
  • The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries by Ruth Barnes and Marianne Ellis

    The Newberry Collection of Islamic Embroideries

    A band of linked and interlocking hexagons, each containing a diamond. The band also has a border with hook motifs.

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum