Description

Exquisite, embroidered textile made in India, most likely for the Portuguese market,  in the eighteenth  century.  The all over  embroidery on pink silk satin is worked in silk in a variety of stitches and includes the application of sequins. Rows of heart shaped elements in alternating light blue and light green outlines alternatingly face upwards and downwards, so that the field design is not directional. However, the flower arrangements at the top and bottom ends  outside the richly embroidered borders on a light grey-aubergine ground both face towards the field, which might indicate the embroidery was originally used to be draped over a larger object, possibly a table, so the borders  would be seen the right way up from both sides. Two emblems in the style of coats of arms decorate the bottom and top right-hand corners of the end sections, one depicting a porcupine, the other the Christian symbol of the snake around the tree.

The textile has been sympathetically conserved and mounted.

£4,500