2-746-490 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Turban cover, 1700s-early 1800s. This exceptionally fine, diaphanous silk turban cover represents the highest quality professional embroidery. Shiny gilt- and silver-metal thread and at least ten colours of silk thread—including newly fashionable pastel tones—create three-dimensional blossoms in the central roundel and multicoloured cornucopias on the lavender silk ground. In Turkey, square cloths embroidered with one or two concentric circles in the center of floral fields were generally used to cover stored turbans, a function well served by this elegant cover with weighted golden borders.