Name of Object:

Embroidery

Location:

Stockholm, Sweden

Holding Museum:

Museum of National Antiquities

Original Owner:

Emerentia von Düben, Maid of Honour to Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

Current Owner:

Riddarholm Church, Stockholm, through donation of Emerentia von Düben in 1728

Date of Object:

Hegira early 12th century / AD early 18th century

Museum Inventory Number:

5049:d

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Silk, gold thread; chiffon, embroidery.

Dimensions:

Height 115 cm, width 114 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

Turkey.

Description:

The greenish ground material of this embroidery is very sheer chiffon. Blossoming shrubs are spread over the entire surface of this fine fabric, executed in gradated shades of different-coloured silk. The outlines and stems are made of gold thread. Judging from the circle in the middle, this nearly square textile could originally have served as a turban cover. While the textile was in Riddarholm Church in Stockholm it was used as a baptismal font cover.

View Short Description

Embroidery on a ground of very sheer, greenish chiffon. Blossoming shrubs are spread over the entire surface of the textile. The embroidery could originally have served as a turban cover. During the time it belonged to Riddarholm Church in Stockholm it was used as a cover for a baptismal font.

How date and origin were established:

Dated by A. Geijer (see Bibliography).

How Object was obtained:

Deposit by Riddarholm Church, Stockholm.

How provenance was established:

Provenance established according to the technique by A. Geijer (see Bibliogrqphy).

Selected bibliography:

Ådahl, K. (ed.), Sverige och den Islamiska Världen, Värnamo, 2002, 182–3.
Geijer, A., Oriental Textiles in Sweden, Copenhagen, 1951, 83–5, cat. no. 143, plate 74 (black and white), plate XVII (colour).
Islam, Konst och Kultur. Islam, Art and Culture, Exhibition catalogue, Stockholm, 1985, cat. no. 31.

Citation of this web page:

Friederike Voigt "Embroidery" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;se;Mus01_A;39;en

Prepared by: Friederike VoigtFriederike Voigt

Friederike Voigt has an MA in Iranian studies, history of art and social science and is currently working on her doctoral thesis on wall tiles in architectural decoration of Qajar Iran. Since 2004 she has been a project-related curator at the Museum for Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm for Museum With No Frontiers. She studied at Humboldt University in Berlin, at the University of Tehran and archaeology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. She taught Persian language at several universities in Germany. She was an assistant curator at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Cultures at the Museum of Ethnology, State Museums of Berlin. Her main fields of interest are the material culture of Iran, especially of the Qajar period, and contemporary Iranian art.

Copyedited by: Monica Allen

MWNF Working Number: SE 43

RELATED CONTENT

 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Ottomans


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