TURKEY, LATE 16TH CENTURY

Details

AN OTTOMAN SILK VELVET AND METAL THREAD WOVEN YASTIK
Turkey, late 16th century
The red velvet ground woven with a very large single tulip flowerhead in metal-thread containing other smaller floral sprays, everted leaves above, an arcaded panel of floral motifs above and below, reduced in length, slight wear
49 x 26cm. (125 x 66cm.)

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Lot Essay

This is a remarkably powerful velvet which appears to have no precise parallels in the published examples. The nearest is a fragment in Düsseldorf which has an overall design of comparable but not quite so large tulip flowerheads filling the field (Erber, Christian: A Wealth of Silk and Velvet, exhibition catalogue, Bremen, 1993, no.G 6/1, pp.140-1). The entry under that fragment notes two further comparable examples, in the Benaki Museum and in an old Paris Collection.

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