Description
Fragments of a dark brown and tan silk double cloth. Two incomplete sections of large roundel borders contain an animal procession. Confronted birds and lions flank a central tree form, framed in a band of animal motifs - leopards, dogs, and bulls. They are arranged in each quarter so that the bulls are confronted at the center of each side. In the smaller medallions there is an eight-pointed star motif and scrolls framed in a border of Kufic lettering. The inscription reads: "Glory and success to the [master]..."
Bibliography
International Exhibition of Persian Art (London, 1931), Gallery II, Case 38P (Cat., p. 28, Gallery II, No. 38P -- incorrectly described, cf. Case 38B for larger piece of same design, and Illustrated Souvenir, (London, 1931), 1st ed., p. 68 where it is illustrated).
Pope, Arthur Upham, ed., Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present (London, 1938), p. 1998, note 5, and Cat. no. 21.
Arabic Inscriptions on Medieval Textiles from the Near East in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, analyzed by Richard Ettinghausen (Ann Arbor, 1939), No. 14.
Catalogue of Textile Fabrics, The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, compiled by Frances Morris (Washington, D.C., 1940), Vol. III, 243 (excerpt in dossier).
Wiet, G. Soieries Persanes (Cairo, 1948), p. 181 (referred to as no. 21).
Shepherd, Dorothy, "Medieval Persian Silks in Fact and Fancy," Bulletin de Liasion du Centre International d'Etude des Textiles Anciens, 1974, vols. I and II, pp. 8, 16, 27, 29, 83, 86, 156, 160 (no. 2), and fig. 12 a
D. Thompson, Catalogue of Textiles in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (unpublished manuscript), (1976), cat. no. 174.
Exhibition History
International Exhibition of Persian Art, London, 1931.
Cleveland Museum of Art, "Islamic Exhibition," Nov.3, 1944-Feb. 4, 1945.
Acquisition History
Possibly from Rayy, Iran.
Purchased from the dealer Paul Mallon (1884-1975), Paris, by Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss, October 1926;
Collection of Mildred Barnes and Robert Woods Bliss, Washington, DC 1926 - November 29, 1940;
Gifted to Harvard University, November 29, 1940;
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Byzantine Collection, Washington, D.C.
