PROBABLY OTTOMAN BURSA, TURKEY, FIRST HALF 17TH CENTURY

A very similar, but slightly smaller, velvet of the same design is published by Nurhan Atasoy, Walter B. Denny, Louise W. Mackie and Hülya Tezcan in IPEK. The Crescent & the Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets, 2001, p.215, fig.102. In that seminal work, the authors write that after the middle of the 16th century, many Bursa velvet-weaving ateliers abandoned the 'old fashioned' Italianate style in favour of smaller scale and more intense Ottoman floral sprays, in the style that was being introduced at the time by Kara Memi in the nakkashkhane. As seen here, these were assimilated with the old ogival format to become a popular layout in court-style Ottoman textiles.