Description
This exceptionally fine roundel is crafted of the finest materials and embroidered with silver-gilt thread on vibrant colours of silk velvet and padded on leather and cotton fabric grounds.
This piece was probably made by the male artisans in Fez or Rabat and was probably commissioned for a Royal household.
Our elegant roundel is made from red, purple and green silk velvet elaborately embroidered with gold thread decoration depicting a central eight-pointed star medallion surrounded by eight triangular segments separated by wide straight lines, a radial like sun motive decoration.
The whole geometrical spaces of the roundel are beautifully and fully decorated with various vegetal, floral and arabesque designs.
This very large embroidered roundel was probably used as a canopy or to decorate tabletops, similar to the Ottoman (Sofra Bezi) or as a mural wall hanging (Hayti).
Similar embroidered shapes are very common in Morocco but on a much smaller scale, such small roundels were embroidered and used to decorate the sitting cushion tops.
Condition:- Very Good, Some tear and wear to fabric .
Dimensions:
100 cm diam.
Referances:-
For similar decoration, please see
1- For similar fine Moroccan embroidered decorative element please see, Arts Et Culture Du Maroc, Un Jardin D’Objets, ACR Edition, BY Marie-Rose Rabate and Andre Goldenberg.
The fine embroidered wall hanging (Haiti) embroidered in the city of Fez, the embroidery belongs to the Museum of Du Quai Branly in Paris, lot illustrated on page 227.
The fine embroidered wall hanging (Hayti)-(very similar decoration), embroidered in the city of Rabat, the embroidery belongs to the Museum of Oudaia in Rabat, lot illustrated on page 294.
The fine embroidered cushion top at the Museum of Dar Belghazi, Sidi Bouknadel-Sale, exhibited on page 103. Also for another similar embroidered work please see the embroidered wall hanging (Haiti) at the Museum of Bab El Oqla in the Moroccan city of Tetouan, lot illustrated on page 40.
2- The magnificent embroidered wall hanging (Hayti) at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA. Lot accession No. 1983.66.
3- Morocco, Marrakesh-Fez-Rabat, Text by Rom Landau, Photographs by Wim Swaan, Elk Books Limited, 2 All Saints Street, London N1.
The Stucco Wall Roundel and The Carved Cedar wood details in the court of Medrasa Bu Inaniya in Fez, page 111.