Skill of the Hand, Delight of the Eye

Embroidery adorned a wide range of articles, including clothing, household items, and military equipment, which were used by Ottoman people on occasions ranging from the daily life of ordinary people to magnificent ceremonies held at the palace. As a result embroidery developed into a professional craft, producing exquisite work of outstanding beauty and quality. Turkish customs and former nomadic life style, and the strong artistic influence of the Ottoman palace played a major part in the special place of embroidery among the decorative arts of the period.

Embroidered textiles that were both decorative and functional were used at the Ottoman palace and in ordinary homes, including covers for divans, wall hangings, mirror covers, curtains, mats and prayer mats, quilt facings, sheets, hand towels and bath towels, napkins, table mats and costume accessories such as sashes.

Square wrapping cloths of different sizes were used for storing or carrying all kinds of items. Depending on the use to which they were put, they were described as ‘garment wrapping cloths’, ‘bath wrapping cloths’, ‘underwear wrapping cloths’, ‘handkerchief wrap­ping cloths’ and so on. Gifts presented on special occasions at the palace also often included embroi­dered handkerchiefs, hand towels and wrapping cloths. As well as being gifts in themselves, any gift, great or small, was traditionally wrapped in a handkerchief or an embroidered wrapping cloth. The splendour of these cloths or handkerchiefs re­flected the degree of esteem in which the giver held the recip­ient of the gift.

Changes that began to affect every sphere of Ottoman art in the 18th century, from tombstone decoration to architecture, also influenced the art of embroidery. The earliest examples are the many embroideries executed in tambour work, which became widely used from the middle of the century. Tambour work was popular in the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. The use of shad­ing in various tones and architectural motifs in these embroideries reflects innovations of the period.

Turbans were kept on special shelves called kavukluk when not in use, and to protect them from dust were covered with em­broidered cloths that form another distinct class of Ottoman em­broidered artefacts.

Bridal trousseaus always included an embroidered shaving apron, which the bride sent her husband to be as a gift, wrapped up in an embroidered cloth together with a towel and shaving bowl. The groom would use these to be shaved on the day his bride was to arrive at his house. His friends traditionally kept him company and entertained him while he was shaved.

Ottoman prayer mats and rugs with a composition consisting of a niche that rep­ resented the prayer niche in a mosque were made of various different materials, including felt, velvet, silk fabric, carpet and flatweave.

Principal motifs in the early 18th century are scattered bouquets of flowers, garlands, draped curtains, flying ribbons, bows, landscapes and buildings. Colours across the spectrum were used in embroideries, and varying tones of the same colour were used to give a shaded effect in an effort to lend depth and volume to the motifs.

Multiple niche prayer mats designed for several people to pray at the same time were usually in the form of carpets or made of felt with appliqué motifs.

Meals were eaten on large circular trays placed on low wooden stands over cir­cular embroidered mats spread on the floor. These dining mats were an essential part of household equipment, and always figure on the trousseau lists of palace women recorded in documents in Topkapı Palace Museum Archive. Museums and private col­lections have examples of dining mats dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Serving coffee to visitors was one of the foremost hospitality rituals in Ottoman social life, for both women and men. Great care was shown at every stage of coffee preparation, from roasting the beans to serving. From the 19th century onwards richly embroidered coffee cloths were used in wealthy homes.

Light embroideries were far more widely used in daily life and so produced in very large quantities. These included napkins, hand towels, bath towels, kerchiefs, sashes and similar items, which were not only produced in workshops but also by palace women and ordinary women in their homes, either for their trousseaus or to meet the needs of their households.

A common type of composition found on light embroideries is small land­scapes, usually lacking any perspective, consisting of architectural motifs like mosques, houses or tents, small rowing boats on a shore, and various trees and flowers. Embroi­deries of this kind were probably influenced by the murals and oil paintings that under the influence of western art became widespread in the 19th century. The most striking reflection of these influences on the art of embroidery are embroidered landscape panels in a realistic style inspired by western art, and using perspective, subject to which we will return later.

Rectangular linen hand towels used to dry the hands after washing them before and after meals were embroidered along each end and fringed.

Sometimes a single very long rectangular napkin known as dolama was placed on the knees of all the diners around the circular dining tray. This type of napkin was also embroidered at both ends.

Known as çevre these were squares of fine linen or cotton muslin with embroidered borders along all four sides. Julia Pardoe, an English writer who visited Istanbul in the early 1830s, gives a vivid account of a day spent at the bath, describing how the servants in the cool room poured essence upon their mistresses' hair before wrapping embroidered head-kerchiefs around their heads.

Women not only went to the hamam or bath once a week but also attended baths held on special occasions, such as those for brides before their wedding or for women a few weeks after giving birth.

Visits to the bath were social gatherings, and on such occasions women took the opportunity to show off their finest bath towels and kerchiefs as a display of their wealth and skill at needlework. Richly embroidered towels of various kinds were one of the most important parts of a bride's trousseau.

The type of couching known as dival dates back to the late 18th century and today is more commonly known as Maraş work. The motifs are cut out of cardboard, leather or wood, then glued onto the fabric and metal wire worked like satin stitch over the templates.

This fascination increased in the 19th century under the influence of the Orientalist movement. Cushion covers embroidered with portraits of the sultans copied from oil paintings or portrait albums were popular with local people as well as western travellers.

Since heavy embroideries used expensive materials and required strength to work, they were mainly produced by workshops employing professional male embroiderers. Kaaba covers, curtains, prayer mats, saddle cloths, tents, quivers, pistol holders, boots, wallets, bags, richly embroidered wedding dresses called bindallı and bedspreads are examples of the items produced at these workshops.

Ottoman functional objects decorated with embroidery were popular with European travellers and diplomats, as revealed by the large number of embroidered letter wallets made in Istanbul and bearing the names of their owners that have survived to the present day.

In the 18th and 19th centuries pouches and bags embroidered with Ottoman figures or Istanbul scenes, and embroidered landscapes were also produced as gifts for foreign visitors, reflecting western interest in Ottoman culture and embroidery.

Needle lace which has an important place among the traditional Turkish arts belongs to a category of laces that includes crochet, hairpin crochet and tatting. Needle lace is mainly worked with silk thread and the motifs stiffened by means of horsehair or fine wire, or by applying gum tragacanth, resin or eggwhite. This work is so fine that the word oya has come to be used metaphorically in Turkish to mean beautiful or delicate work requires patience. The motifs are inspired by nature, and mainly consist of flowers and other plants.