Fragment of a furnishing textile (possibly 1700s or 1800s): Art, History and Details

Fragment of a furnishing textile (possibly 1700s or 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Small bands like this decorated furnishings. They are distinctive to Azemmour, Morocco, where Jewish women embroidered them at home. This band’s red designs are floral and geometric; the scrolls may be abstracted dragons. Its Renaissance-era motifs reflect centuries of cross-Mediterranean exchange (especially with Portugal, which ruled Azemmour from 1513 to 1541). Such designs traveled to North Africa via printed pattern books. Patterns were transferred onto fabric, then the backgrounds were covered with filling stitches: plait and cross-stitches were used here. The production of these embroideries ceased around the mid-1900s because of cost and changing fashions.

Object facts

• Title: Fragment of a furnishing textile
• Date: possibly 1700s or 1800s
• Culture: Africa, North Africa, Morocco, Azemmour, Moroccan embroiderer
• Type: Embroidery
• Technique: Linen, silk, and dye
• Dimensions: Overall: 27.9 x 80.6 cm (11 x 31 3/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1916.1244

A detail from the museum

This textile represents the work of at least four individuals: the person who prepares the fibers, the weaver, the dyer, and the embroiderer.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Soenderholm, Ivan. "Arts of the Maghreb: North African Textiles." Jozan: Oriental rug news. January 30, 2025.
• 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.