Embroidery sampler (chelliga/shelliga) (1800s): Art, History and Details

Embroidery sampler (chelliga/shelliga) (1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

These detailed samplers demonstrate the artist's technical range. Here, floral designs, protective open-palm hand motifs (khamsa) and various patterns are embroidered using double-running stitches, straight stitches, and long-armed cross stitches with dyed silk thread. Young women from all social classes would learn these skills from a master craftswoman (mu’allima), who taught within her home. Upon the completion their studies, these professionally trained women would produce a sampler as a “diploma” testifying to their skills.

Object facts

• Title: Embroidery sampler (chelliga/shelliga)
• Date: 1800s
• Culture: Africa, North Africa, Morocco, Salé, Moroccan embroiderer
• Type: Sampler
• Technique: Cotton, silk, dye
• Dimensions: Overall: 104.1 x 81.3 cm (41 x 32 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1929.842

A detail from the museum

This sampler's motifs include human figures, floral motifs, doorways, and “resha” starlike motifs. It is unusual for samplers to have a fringe border.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Stone, Caroline. The Embroideries of North Africa. Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex: Longman, 1985.
• Paydar, Niloo Imami, and Ivo Grammet. The Fabric of Moroccan Life. Indianapolis, Ind: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2002.
• Denamur, Isabelle, Pierre Ferbos, and Louise Rogers Lalaurie. Moroccan textile embroidery. Paris: Flammarion, 2003.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.