Woman’s Mantle (Chyrpy) (late 1800s–early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Woman’s Mantle (Chyrpy) (late 1800s–early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Traditional costumes in central Asia have distinctive characteristics that indicate ethnicity, age, and class. One of the oldest examples is a woman’s coat with false sleeves attached on the back and worn over the head. This silk coat in yellow, the color worn by middle-aged women, is elaborately decorated with popular stylized tulips embroidered in chain stitch. Worn consistently by a newlywed, the coat was later only used on special occasions. Although women made and embroidered garments at home, this expensive luxury mantle was professionally made and sold in the marketplace.

Object facts

• Title: Woman’s Mantle (Chyrpy)
• Date: late 1800s–early 1900s
• Culture: Central Asia, Turkmenistan, Tekke tribe
• Type: Garment
• Technique: Exterior: silk; plain weave; embroidery: chain stitch; Trim: silk; tablet-woven with fringe; Lining: cotton; plain weave, block printed
• Dimensions: Overall: 119.4 x 75 cm (47 x 29 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Textiles
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 2010.192

Collection credit

Gift of E.B. and Joan C. Long

Further reading listed by the museum

• Gluck, Jay, and Sumi Hiramoto Gluck. A Survey of Persian Handicraft: A Pictorial Introduction to the Contemporary Folk Arts and Art Crafts of Modern Iran. Tehran: Published under the auspices of the Bank Melli Iran [by] Survey of Persian Art, 1977.
• Gervers, V. “Construction of Türkmen Coats.” Textile History 14, no. 1 (1983).
• Amstey, Marvin S., Frederica Amstey, and George W. O'Bannon. Vanishing Jewels: Central Asian Tribal Weavings : a Catalog of an Exhibition by the Rochester Museum & Science Center, September 14, 1990 to March 17, 1991 from the Collection of Marvin and Frederica Amstey. Rochester, N.Y.: The Center, 1990.

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.