id: 95575 accession number: 1916.1297 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.1297 updated: 2022-05-24 09:00:43.808000 Tent Wall Panel(?), 1800s. Iran, Rasht, Qajar period (1779-1925). Wool: inlaid work; silk: embroidery, chain stitch; overall: 194.9 x 132.7 cm (76 3/4 x 52 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade 1916.1297 title: Tent Wall Panel(?) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1800s creation date earliest: 1800 creation date latest: 1899 current location: creditline: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade copyright: --- culture: Iran, Rasht, Qajar period (1779-1925) technique: Wool: inlaid work; silk: embroidery, chain stitch department: Textiles collection: T - Islamic type: Embroidery find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 194.9 x 132.7 cm (76 3/4 x 52 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Floral Delight: Textiles from Islamic Lands opening date: 2014-07-09T04:00:00 Floral Delight: Textiles from Islamic Lands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 9, 2014-May 4, 2015). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * --- PROVENANCE Jeptha Homer Wade II [1857-1926] and Ellen Garretson Wade [1859-1917], Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: ?-1916 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1916- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Generally, Rasht work was made by men. Boys handled the delicate embroidering while older men designed cartoons and punched the wool designs. digital description: Elaborate arched panels with multiple borders similar to this textile formed the mosaic-like interior walls of imperial tents. Here, the field is dominated by a richly decorated cypress tree above peacocks and dragon heads on an ornate foliate ground. We look upon the gardenscape through a niche (mihrab) formed by this foliage. Bright white silk “pearl” outlines, vines, and ringlets in chain-stitch embroidery enliven the pattern on contrasting colors of fulled wool. Internationally fashionable botehs, or paisleys, decorate the outer red borders.This technique has been referred to by many different names including: Rasht work, Resht work, Rashti-duzi, Rachti-douzi, embroidery applique, mosaic embroidery, piecework, patchwork, embroidery brocade, and inlaid patchwork. Many of these terms are to various degrees inaccurate descriptions of this technique. Perhaps the most practical term is Rasht work, named for the town in Iran where the technique was popularized. It begins as a ground of felted plain weave wool. Desired shapes are then punched out of the ground with a metal die and hammer. The same is done with wool of an alternating color. The edges of the different cut pieces are then embroidered together into various designs using a silk chain stitch (golab-duzi). Although this piecework technique was recorded in Iran in the 1670s, most examples survive from the 19th century, when foreigners praised them as “really [the] most beautiful embroidery.” The technique appears in furnishing fabrics, and horse covers, as well as imperial portraits, including one depicting the Qajar monarch Fath ‘Ali Shah, who ruled in 1797–1837. Sometime after leaving the workshop this panel experienced moth damage; small patches can be seen throughout. wall description: Elaborate arched panels with multiple borders similar to this textile formed the mosaic-like interior walls of imperial tents. Here, the field is dominated by a richly decorated cypress tree above peacocks and dragon heads on an ornate foliate ground. Bright white silk “pearl” outlines, vines, and ringlets in chain-stitch embroidery enliven the pattern on contrasting colors of fulled wool. Internationally fashionable botehs, or paisleys, decorate the outer red borders. Although this patchwork technique was recorded in Iran in the 1670s, most examples survive from the 19th century, when foreigners praised them as “really [the] most beautiful embroidery.” The technique appears in furnishing fabrics, horse covers, as well as imperial portraits, including one depicting the Qajar monarch Fath ‘Ali Shah, who ruled in 1797–1837. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Gluck, Jay, and Sumi Hiramoto Gluck. A Survey of Persian Handicraft: A Pictorial Introduction to the Contemporary Folk Arts and Art Crafts of Modern Iran. Tehran: Published under the auspices of the Bank Melli Iran [by] Survey of Persian Art, 1977. page number: url: Nashat, Guity. "From Bazaar to Market: Foreign Trade and Economic Development in Nineteenth-Century Iran," Iranian Studies 14, no.1/2 (1981); 53-85. page number: url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4310353 Wearden, Jennifer Mary, and Patricia L. Baker. Iranian Textiles. London: V & A Pub, 2010. page number: url: "The Shah's Tent." HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles 185 (Autumn 2015): 94-95. page number: url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1297/1916.1297_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1297/1916.1297_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.1297/1916.1297_full.tif