The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 1, 2023

Fragment with jewel-like silk

800s

Iraq, probably Baghdad

Silk: plain weave, brocaded

Overall: 17.1 x 12.7 cm (6 3/4 x 5 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1950.526

Location

not on view

Description

This fragment is brocaded in a jewel-toned silks: red, rose, turquoise, salmon pink, pale pink, golden tan, green, dark blue, and dark brown. Flat strips of gold foil were wound on tan silk strands to create gold thread adding to the luxuriousness of the brocade.

Provenance
?-1950
(Dr. Emil Delmar [1876-1959], Budapest, Hungary, and New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1950-
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Kühnel, Ernst. "Abbasid Silks of the Ninth Century." Ars Orientalis 2 (1957): 367-71. pp. 367-71, fig. 12 www.jstor.org
Wilckens, Leonie von. Die textilen Künste: von der Spätantike bis um 1500. München: C.H. Beck, 1991. p. 84, no. 86
Baker, Patricia L. Islamic Textiles. London: British Museum Press, 1995. pp. 34-35
Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 70, fig. 2.31; Mentioned: P. 70, 215
Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1950.526