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Lot Essay
Double-sided suzanis such as this are very rare. While suzanis may be embroidered in different types of satin stitch, double-sided examples are embroidered in a double-running stitch, making them reversible. This unusual feature also appears on a ruidjo suzani from Bukhara in the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Hawaii (85.55), described as "one of the finest" of the Doris Duke's collection by Carol Bier ('The Suzani Collection of Doris Duke at Shangri La in Honolulu, Hawaii', Elmira Gyul (ed.), Embroideries and Carpets of Uzbekistan in Foreign Collections, Tashkent, 2017, pp.289, 297). Two other double-sided suzanis are in the State Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow (1107III and 2333III; Ekaterina Ermakova, 'Masterpieces from the East', HALI, Issue 198, figs. 6, 11, pp.85-6).
The main motif on this suzani is the boteh, with its teardrop body and tapering, curling tip, commonly associated with Kashmir shawls. These were traded to Central Asia, where it was known as a bodom, or almond, and appears to have been adapted by suzani designers (Penny Oakley, 'Catalogue', Christian Erber, Penny Oakley, and Markus Voigt (eds.), Suzani: Art of the Silk Road, London, 2025, pp.320-21). Such adaptation appears in the stems from which the botehs blossom and which surround them, as well as the minute, spiralling stems attached to them. While botehs became increasingly stylised in the late 19th-century Shahrisabz under the aegis of its emir (Oakley, op.cit., see the previous lot of this sale), our example was probably made by the settled Lakai tribe probably living near Shahrisabz, on light brown cotton probably imported from India. Suzani botehs have been interpreted as wishing the owner a long life (Noorah Al-Gailani, Suzani Embroideries in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow 2008, unpag.), an appropriate symbolism for a dowry piece. A suzani with similar botehs in a prayer rug design was sold at Christie's, South Kensington, 15 October 2003, lot 265.
The main motif on this suzani is the boteh, with its teardrop body and tapering, curling tip, commonly associated with Kashmir shawls. These were traded to Central Asia, where it was known as a bodom, or almond, and appears to have been adapted by suzani designers (Penny Oakley, 'Catalogue', Christian Erber, Penny Oakley, and Markus Voigt (eds.), Suzani: Art of the Silk Road, London, 2025, pp.320-21). Such adaptation appears in the stems from which the botehs blossom and which surround them, as well as the minute, spiralling stems attached to them. While botehs became increasingly stylised in the late 19th-century Shahrisabz under the aegis of its emir (Oakley, op.cit., see the previous lot of this sale), our example was probably made by the settled Lakai tribe probably living near Shahrisabz, on light brown cotton probably imported from India. Suzani botehs have been interpreted as wishing the owner a long life (Noorah Al-Gailani, Suzani Embroideries in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow 2008, unpag.), an appropriate symbolism for a dowry piece. A suzani with similar botehs in a prayer rug design was sold at Christie's, South Kensington, 15 October 2003, lot 265.