Page 205 - The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent

135 (above). Embroidered cushion cover, mid-sixteenth century
(Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M. 85.237.8)
136 (right). Embroidered quilt cover, mid-sixteenth century (Washington,
The Textile Museum, 1.22)

show lattice or ogival compositions. Although their dimen-
sions depended on the quilts, which were made for both chil-
dren or adults, they averaged 240 by 170 centimeters (941/2
by 67 inches), which is an ample size for today's double bed.
One of the earliest quilt covers (136) is embroidered in silk
with an extraordinarily wide range of colors that includes
thirteen shades. The piece has been cut in half, with possible
losses in the center (its width must have been originally at
1
least 158 centimeters, or 62 A inches). Executed in a double
running stitch on a plain-weave white cotton, it is decorated
with a highly sophisticated vertical-stem pattern using two
superimposed scrolls. One of the scrolls bears alternating tu-
lips and carnations; the other is more complex, and has
twisting saz leaves that lay over blossoms in addition to ha-
tayis and several other types of flowers and buds, together
with short branches that curve into the voids.

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