STARS OF THE CAUCASUS: Silk Embroideries From Azerbaijan

Rare 2017 first edition by a selection of world leading experts and scholars, this is the first book on the subject of antique Azerbaijan silk embroideries containing previously unpublished research material from museums and private collections around the world. Beautifully designed, these big white glossy pages show in close up large detail and the colours of these extraordinary silk embroideries with surface darning on the diagonal and running stitch on cotton in embroidered Bohça and fragments from the late 18th century Safavid, an embroidered cover in pale greys and blues as exhibited at Burlington House in 1931, designs of a courtly scene of a young Prince playing a stringed instrument, seated to the left of a blue cypress tree, on the right a princess in a hat with an Arabesque tail offering a sweetmeat or piece of fruit. In the grey-green field there are a number of prancing animals including rabbits and spotted white leopards with traces of black silk, showing that the spots were originally embroidered but have since corroded since it was made in the 17th century. This design has a magnificent fringe. There is a triangular headscarf silk embroidery, part of a group of 'Iranian' textiles acquired in Tehran by Caspar Purdon Clarke in the mid-1870s and purchased from him by the V&A in 1876. These luxurious designs are showcased in page after page of beautiful colour plates and an expert history explaining the textile traditions of the Iranian and Turkic worlds, materials and needlework techniques, as well as the relationship between embroidery and the pile carpet weaving tradition in the region. 228 pages, 26.54 x 31cm.