Sash

Object name

Sash

Date made

19th century

Place made

Turkey

Description

Embroidered Turkish sash with floral imagery, dating to the 19th century.

Content description

A 19th-century Turkish sash which would have been worn around the waist, tied so that the decorative ends hung down. It is decorated with various flowers, including roses in dark and light pink, tulips in pink and yellow, and spiky flowers in blue and yellow. These floral compositions are symmetrical.

The flowers and leaves are all stitched in silk threads using double running stitch, fishbone stitch, and double darning on the diagonal. Murver stitch, a traditional Turkish embroidery stitch, is also used. Metal plate thread is used throughout in a double darning stitch on the diagonal, seen on the stems of the blue and yellow spiky flowers and the green and pink spiky leaves. It is also used around the rectangular border at the edge of each sash end. Double darning on the diagonal is also stitched in the same way between the petals of the roses, switching to a fishbone stitch where it joins the stem. The plate is also used to make small eyelets and satin stitch buds in the middle of the yellow spiky flowers. The embroidery is nearly identical on the front and reverse. The sash is made of fine, unbleached linen and is edged on its short ends with buttonhole stitches worked in red silk.