Mae Festa 50 Years of Collecting Textiles - Peter Pap Oriental Rugs

CENTRAL ASIA – Uzbekistan
Dowry Embroidery (Suzani)
3 rd Quarter 19 th Century
Kermina
Silk embroidery on cotton, chain stitch.
113 x 174 cm 44½ x 68½ in
This beautiful suzani is a nimsuzani (“half-sized”).
Although its overall format (broad border, guard
border and field) is standard, it has many design
features that make it distinctive. It alternates paired
botehs with large, open flowers in the border. The use
of botehs is uncommon, and these have wonderfully
varying palettes for their interior ornamentation.
The field has a central flower smaller than those
in its border, with the radiating palmettes, flowers
and curving stems around them giving the impression
of a central medallion as broad as the field itself.
It also features quarter flowers/medallions in each
corner. Blue, in two hues, is present here to an extent
rarely seen in suzanis, particularly in the flowers seen
in profile throughout the field.
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