Featured Help With Tapestry Please

Although the condition is not great, I couldn’t resist this somewhat naive tapestry. It reminds me of a sampler but is embroidered in thicker thread (possibly wool) . The colours have bled in parts (mostly the red) and there are some white blotches and the bottom edge is missing but I still think it will be collectable to a buyer when I sell it.

It measures 88cm x 95cm .

Google image searches have not produced any hits.

I am pretty sure that it is antique and guess that it is perhaps Scandinavian?

Any thoughts from experts? This is completely outside my usual area which is ceramics.

 

Very nice. It could be Eastern European.
Some of the men are wearing a 'shtreimel', the fur hat worn by Hassidic married men on sabbath and feasts. They also have the long side locks Hassidic men have, and if I remember correctly, those pointy hats were obligatory for Jewish men in some parts of Eastern Europe.
With those musicians, it looks like a celebration with music and dance.
If I am right, it is a pretty rare piece.

I think so too.

Tagging some of our Jewish members, @komokwa , @pearlsnblume , @NanaB , am I on the right track? And what could it be for?

 

I am having difficulty seeing the details of the stitches. Can you please post some closeups, front and back?

 

Will do shortly

 

Is this a tapestry, or an embroidery?

 

I suppose it’s an embroidery although it was sold to me as a tapestry

 

Here are photos front and back

 

That was my question too. I'm seeing embroidery.

 

I got nothing..

 

Me too.

 

It would be described as an embroidery, rather than tapestry. In a tapestry, the designs are incorporated during the weaving process. In embroidery, the designs are applied to a woven fabric using a variety of different stitching techniques. Being able to see what stitches are used can sometimes be helpful in determining the origin of the piece. This is why it is important to include detailed closeups of the stitching. Accurately naming the embroidery techniques can also enhance a description of the textile when selling.

The view of the stitches from the back seems pretty straightforward. But this is the best I can do enlarging your latest photos of the front -


I can guess at the structure, but they are still a little too blurry.

From what I can see, it looks like the threads used in the embroidery may be silk. This, and the use of the carnation and tulip motifs, may point to an Ottoman origin, or Eastern Europe while under Ottoman influence.

 

seems my Alerts are not working too...

 

Thank you. I will take more pics tomorrow. I agree that I should try and be as accurate as possible with my description.

 

Maybe if I shout louder?

 

The embroidery (not tapestry ) appears to be done mostly in a style of herringbone stitch, which creates a backstitch on the backside. It appears rather crudely done but is interesting! The building, the dress, and that bowed instrument (some kind of rebab?) should be helpful to those more familiar with that kind of stuff.
I'm kinda feeling Asia... but WDIK?

 

The instrument being played may be a type of kemenche/kemençe, a 3 stringed instrument played with a bow and held vertically. Variations are traditional in Turkey, Greece, and regions around the Black Sea. The one depicted in the embroidery seems to be unusually large, but then so are the flowers.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemenche

Another observation - I notice that, although there is some variation in the details of the embroidery, the repeating designs look virtually identical in form. This may indicate that the outlines may have been applied first with a wood block stamp, and then embroidered. There appear to be faint outlines visible in the face here, where the embroidery stitches are absent -


Perhaps you can see more in a close examination.

 

Just as the Bayeaux "Tapestry" is actually embroidery...

 

Thank you for all the comments. In response here are close up pics of stitches front and back and yes it does appear to be stitched onto a printed pattern as the embroiderer has missed a few places.

 

I have looked up some Turkish embroidery and I think that you may well be right about an origin in that Middle East sort of area. The flowers are very similar to flowers on Iznik pottery and Turkish embroidery.

 

Thank you for the more detailed photos.

As bluumz suggested, the stitch used is called "herringbone". The stitch has been widely known in may embroidery traditions, but the closest comparisons I have been able to find in terms of style and technique are embroideries from the Epirus region of Greece, where the herringbone stitch is a characteristic of one group of embroideries identified by a textile researcher.

Sumru Belger Krody, Chief Curator at The Textile Museum at George Washington University and a specialist in "textiles from the late antique era and from the Islamic world", has written several articles and a book on the embroideries of Epirus and the Greek Islands. She notes that Ottoman motifs like the tulip and carnation were adopted into many Greek embroidery styles, but that the herringbone stitch that is used in Epirus is not a technique used in Ottoman textiles -

"The characteristics of the herringbone-stitch style create an interesting conundrum for us to consider. The group exhibits strong design similarities with Ottoman silk
textiles, but the embroidery technique used is unknown in the Ottoman textile arts."
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/...er=&httpsredir=1&article=1349&context=tsaconf

One of the curious things about your embroidery is the costumes of the figures. It looks like it might be a wedding scene, but neither of the main figures seems to be in woman's dress.

It is an interesting piece. You might want to try contacting Krody, to see if she could provide a more informed attribution.

https://museum.gwu.edu/sumru-belger-krody

this email is from an article published in 2006, so I don't know if it is still viable -
skrody@textilemuseum.org