A Greek Islands silk-embroidered linen Coverlet Border Panel

Crete, late 17th/ early 18th Century

Footnotes

Provenance
French Private collection, Paris.

Published
Turquie au nom de la Tulipe, Exhibition Catalogue, Centre Culturel de Boulogne-Billancour, 1993, no. 98.

Cretan embroidery is distinguishable from other Greek Island embroideries by its large variety of colours and the use of a wide array of different stitches within the same textile. Whereas works from nearly all other Greek Islands employ only one or two types of stitching in one piece, Cretans executed their embroideries, such as the lot offered here, with a mixture of feather, herringbone, satin, knot, chain, stem and other stitches. Colours preferred by the people of Crete are red, green, blue, numerous shades of yellow, brown, black and white. Based on their colour palette, Cretan embroideries can be divided into two categories: polychrome and monochrome. Embroideries in the monochrome style can be characterized by the use of a single colour, which is most often red or dark blue, whereas those belonging to the polychrome category, such as this lot, employ a large variety of colour. The density of the design and the complex arrangement of interconnecting individual 'scenes' are also hallmarks of this latter group and are well exemplified in this work. The large format of this embroidery further lends itself to a highly intricate composition, which can be only partially achieved when attempted in smaller textiles, such as towels or articles of clothing. Some of the individual motifs incorporated into the composition, such as the double-headed eagle and other fantastical birds, derive from Italian Renaissance prototypes and their use in embroidery dates back to the period before Crete was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1669, when Venice ruled the island. This work is unquestionably a tour de force of Cretan embroidery and its fine execution, extremely large array of design elements and excellent condition make it a highly attractive and rare piece of textile art.

Comparable examples of similar quality and design were sold at Sotheby's New York, 1 October 1998, lot 93 and Sotheby's, Textiles, Rugs and Carpets from the Collections of Bergi Andonian and Joseph Fell, 19 May 2001, Lot 127, from which this may be the border; a detail from a related example with the Textile Gallery was illustrated in Hali, issue 98, p. 147, fig. 16; and Sumru Krody, Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region: Harpies, Mermaids and Tulips, Washington D.C., The Textile Museum, 2006, pp. 28-29, fig. 1.7.