Stole, mirror dressing (tenchifa)
Rabat, Morocco
Museum of the Udayas
Hegira 12th-13th centuries / AD 18th-19th centuries
D 1588
Silk satin embroidered with silk and gold thread.
Length 330 cm, width 54 cm
Alawid
Tetouan, Morocco.
A long stole embroidered on both ends and on part of the sides.
At the ends, the decoration is divided into two sections that precede a fillet of silk thread spirals and a golden thread braid.
The first section consists of a frieze of wild roses arranged around a cruciform pistil and stylised serrated horseshoe hyacinths arranged obliquely around the fleurons.
The second section consists of a bouquet of flowers growing from a thick undulating line in green silk representing foliage from which the stems and stylised flowers emerge. The ovoid medallion with serrated edges that finishes it is reminiscent of the pomegranate. The borders between the two end compositions are decorated with floral motifs suggesting small butterflies and finished with a golden braid.
All of these motifs would have been embroidered by women with brightly and harmoniously coloured thread. The black silk line that surrounds them enhances the design.
Stoles of this type were hung around mirror frames during festivals to ward off the evil eye. Although the composition and floral motifs are borrowed from the vegetal embroidery of the Algerian Ottomans, the very free stylisation distances it from this original model and sets the piece apart, constituting a genre in itself.
This long stole is embroidered on both ends and part of the sides and would have been hung around mirror frames on feast days to ward off the evil eye. Its compositions and floral motifs, although stylised, are borrowed from the plant repertoire of Algerian Ottoman embroidery.
Comparison with objects mentioned in published studies on the same type of decoration and object (see M. Guérard).
Purchased in 1987.
This embroidery, the type of stole and the way it was used are all characteristic of Tetouan.
Guérard, M., “Les broderies de Tétouan”, Hespéris-Tamouda, X, fasc. 1 & 2, Rabat, 1969, pp.191–234.
Miège, J.-L., Benaboud, M. and Erzini, N., Tétouan, ville andalouse marocaine, Paris, 1996.
Soustiel, J., L'art turc, céramique, tapis, étoffes, velours, broderies, Paris 1852.
Naima El Khatib-Boujibar "Stole, mirror dressing (tenchifa)" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;ma;Mus01_B;50;en
MWNF Working Number: MO 75
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