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25
Suzani with warp ikat ground
cloth
ikat probably Bukhara ca. 1900
Embroidery Uzbek of unknown provenance.
The broad border,
within narrow, sparsely decorated guard stripes, contains
widely-spaced, vivaciously drawn medallions. At their centers are
quartered circles featuring colors recalling the coloration of
Tashkent suzanis but otherwise dissimilar. Each has eight flowers
emanating from it. At each upper corner of the field is a small
sunburst medallion, a characteristic of the spandrels of portals and
other framed architectural features -- including some mihrabs
--going
back a millennium and more. Thus, despite the absence of an arch,
the architectural form is referenced.
This piece would fall under the general rubric of parda, the
term for wall hanging, most usually used in association with ikat
panels. According to Fitz Gibbon and Hale1, Jews were said to favor
the yellow color, although there were evidently many exceptions to
this generalization. Certainly early photographs show the Jewish
community using suzanis along with other textiles to decorate their
homes and to display on special occasions, which seemed to require
massive displays of textiles in all Central Asian communities.
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Detailed Image
(click the image for a
detailed view)
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Detail 1 - front |
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Size, materials and techniques:
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Size: 7' 8"
x 5'
(234 x 152 cm). The all silk foundation cloth is warp faced
with ca. 104 warps per inch and 60 wefts per inch and comprises
irregular, apparently untwisted warps and wefts. Its two-color
process (yellow and natural white) involves only one tying and
dyeing, producing a material called yakbast.1 The
general term for the plain woven, silk-on-silk material was either
kanaous or shahi. The panel is composed of four loom
widths hand sewn together with 1/4" of red selvedge warps, an outer
one of which is heavier than the rest, which are in turn sparingly
ikatted, leaving occasional touches of natural color. In Central
Asia, the yellow dye was predominantly created with yellow
delphinium according to Fitz Gibbon and Hale, although in no case
analyzed was that the only dyestuff employed, there usually being
one or two subordinate dye stuffs used to create the final effect,
most frequently madder, particularly in evidence when a gold color
was desired. The hems at top and bottom are machine sewn. The design
for the embroidery was drawn in advance with a brush or broad pen in
light blue. The rather thick embroidery yarns are in four colors:
indigo, deep purple, deep pink and orange-red. |
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1.
All terminology and technical information from Kate Fitz Gibbon and
Andrew Hale, Ikat: Silks of Central Asia. The Guido Goldman
Collection, Laurence King Publishing, London 1997. |
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NERS GALLERY
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Prayer Rugs &
Related Textiles |
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