Cleveland Museum of Art

Curtain or bedcover

Date

early 1800s

Medium

plain weave: cotton; embroidery: silk

Culture

Tajikistan, Ura Tube

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Known as suzani , embroideries with elaborate floral decoration from Central Asia were a significant part of a bride’s dowry and were ceremoniously displayed on special occasions. Women embroidered suzani, mothers passing their skills on to their daughters. Floral and foliate motifs generally dominate, emboldened with several shades of red and multiple borders, perhaps conveying cosmological, medicinal, or fertility associations. However, few display a more bountiful blossoming garden than seen here. Flora radiates from the central fanlike bouquet, a design echoed in the corners of the field and in the wide border, characteristic of work from Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Patterns were drawn on several loosely joined cotton cloths and then embroidered in chain stitch.

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