Furnishing fabric. Victoria and Albert Museum, London Place of origin:
Bursa (city), Turkey (probably, made)
Date: late 16th century
(made) Artist/Maker: Unknown (production) Materials and Techniques:
Silk velvet Museum number: 1357-1877
Gallery location: In Storage
Public access description The ogival trellis motif on
this silk velvet furnishing fabric is a direct imitation of an Italian
design. However, the piece was made in the town of Bursa, in north-west
Anatolia. In the period 1400-1500, the weavers of Florence and Venice
were the main producers of velvet for the Middle Eastern market. The
Ottoman rulers established looms in Bursa in order to challenge Italian
dominance. Over the following two centuries, weavers there produced
velvets exhibiting marked Italian influence. Some velvets, like this
one, mimicked Italian designs in their entirety.
Descriptive line Panel composed of two loom widths of
crimson velvet, voided and brocaded in gold and silver on a yellow satin
ground Physical description Velvet, large flower and scroll pattern
in gold on crimson ground. Silk foundation with a cut silk pile and areas
brocaded with metal threads; two widths of fabric joined.
Museum number 1357-1877
Object history note The following is from Tim Stanley, Palace and
Mosque: Islamic Art from the Middle East, London: V&A Publications, 2004,
p.125: "In the fifteenth century, the weavers of Florence and Venice
were the main producers of velvet for both the European and Middle Eastern
markets [...]. At the Ottoman court it was eventually decided to mount a
challenge to the Italian predominance in this field, and looms were
established at Bursa, a great silk-trading and manufacturing centre in
north-west Anatolia. It is not known precisely when this occurred, but by
the end of the century Bursa's velvet-weavers were involved in disputes
about a fall-off in quality, predicated on an earlier golden age when
standards were high. Bursa velvets continued to be produced over the
following two centuries, and the influence of Italian models can be
observed over a good deal of this period. "Some examples from Bursa
mimic Italian patterns in their entirety.[1] Others display designs based
on very similar principles, but with the individual elements
changed.[2] In others still, however, the native tradition has
triumphed.[3]" 1 = this textile 2 = V&A: 100-1878 3 = V&A:
96-1878 The following is adapted from Lisa Monnas's entry for this
textile in Renaissance Velvets, to be published by V&A Publishing in 2012
(catalogue no. 50): "This velvet has a striking design, influenced by
Italian velvets but expressed in a Turkish idiom, particularly the
exuberantly looped interlocking stems. The bold, symmetrical design has
been executed with maximum economy of labour: although the reverse repeat
only measures half a loom width, the full design can only be
appreciated across two adjacent widths. The comparatively coarse weave
[...] and monumental design suggest that this was always intended as a
furnishing fabric, particularly suitable for large hangings. "The V&A
acquired this velvet in 1877 as 'Italian, sixteenth century', and in 1883
Bock pronounced it to be from Venice or Genoa, and dated it to the
middle or late sixteenth century. [Note: Purchased, £30 from Monsieur
Fulgence, Paris; information from V&A Register, including Bock’s Revise,
1883.] "In his 1908 catalogue of the Kelekian collection Gaston Migeon,
too, attributed an identical-looking fabric to Venice. [Note: Migeon,
Gaston, La collection Kelekian: Étoffes & tapis d’orient et Venise, Paris:
Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts, 1908, Pl. 80 (‘Imitation oriental’,
Venetian, sixteenth century).] 1 / 2 "By 1923, the V&A velvet was
included in the Textile Department's Brief Guide to the Turkish Woven
Fabrics, and from then on it has been attributed to Ottoman Turkey. The
technical details of this example [...] all support an attribution to
Ottoman manufacture." Monnas list these details as: a) the slim
Z-twisted main warp threads; b) the 1/ 4 twill binding of the metal
brocading weft; c) the fact that the pile warp does not tie the
brocading weft at the edges of the motifs; d) the narrow, plain white
selvedge at this (comparatively) late date. Monnas concludes: "This
velvet (or another example of the same fabric) was eventually reproduced
in England as a wallpaper: a fragment of flocked paper of c.1910 from
the King's Drawing Room in Kensington Palace (London), is in the V&A
collection" [Museum no. E.859-1954]. [Note: "Oman and Hamilton suggest
that although this wallpaper fragment dates from the refurbishment of
Kensington Palace c.1910, the design may have existed as a wallpaper as
early as the seventeenth century: see Oman, Charles and Jean Hamilton,
Wallpapers: A History and Ilustrated Catalogue, Sotheby Publications in
Association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1982, cat. no.
25, p. 97(ill.) and cat. no. 476, p. 195.] URL
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O85110/furnishing-fabric-unknown/ 2 /
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