Epirus Greek Ottoman Embroidered Bed Cover

A LARGE BORDER SECTION FROM A BRIDAL BED COVER

Provenance:

Collection of Beatrice Cook (d. 1953) and her husband Frank (d. 1940)

Published:

A.J.B. Wace, Mediterranean & Near Eastern Embroideries from the Collection of Mrs. F.H. Cook, London, 1935, Pl.II, cat. 12

Another part from this bridal cover is published in Objets d'art de l'Islam, Galerie Jean Soustiel, exhibition catalogue, 10-24 July 1973, No. 26 (present whereabouts unknwon). A panel from a very similar embroidery, perhaps the same bed cover, is published in James Trilling, Agean Crossroads, Greek Island Embroideries in the Textile Museum, Washington, 1983, cat,18, p.103 where it is said that the cover was purchased from A.M. Indjoudjian in Paris before 1940.

Epirus, Ottoman Greece, 18th century

Polychrome silk embroidery on cream linen ground, the bride is accompanied by her parents, the groom or a groomsman on horseback, bordered with pairs of partridges flanking a ewer filled with hyacinths, tulips and a pomegranate, small birds in foliage and paired dogs fill the composition around, a floral meander of tulips, carnations and hyacinths around the lower, left and right edges, applied on wood panel, framed, glazed, with old collection label on reverse

38.5 x 252 cm.

Sold - Private Collection, Austria