Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 24
A fine woven silk Tunic depicting Birds Persia or Central Asia circa 8th Century
8 April 2014, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£30,000 - £50,000
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A fine woven silk Tunic depicting Birds
Persia or Central Asia circa 8th Century
Persia or Central Asia circa 8th Century
with open front and two short sleeves, woven in red, blue, cream and green, with a repeat design of roundels containing paired cockerels with elaborate tail feathers perched on a stylised winged palmette, the interspaces with a geometric stellar motif, the sleeves floral, the front edging in a different fabric with larger scale bird-filled roundels
74 x 78 cm. max.
74 x 78 cm. max.
Footnotes
Medallion silks are first seen in Sassanian art on the robe of Khusraw II 'Parviz' (r. AD 590 - 628) on the rock relief at Taq-i Bustan in Western Persia. A wall fresco at Afrasiyab, a suburb of Bokhara, depicts three ambassadors wearing tailored silk robes with bold designs depicting roundels and ogival medallions with zoomorphic motifs (Christina Sumner and Guy Petheridge, Bright Flowers. Textiles and Ceramics of Central Asia, Sydney, 2004, p. 19).
The more common pearl roundel border has evolved on this textile into a more decorative ensemble of petals and floral buds. The geometric stellar motif contained within the motif in the interspaces illustrates clear parallels with Islamic geometric forms which had been absent on earlier silks from the region. For another panel of this design, but with larger scale roundels, see Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 26th April, 2012, lot 76.