Mamluk Embroidered Tunic Yoke and Detail

Unfortunately cut from the garment it originally decorated by "fortune hunters", this linen tunic front is a veritable sampler of Mamluk period embroidery stitches.

• Pattern darning on the collar - a counted thread technique
• Drawn thread with overcast bars outlining the neck opening and for the star motif - a counted thread technique
• Individual cross stitches along the neck opening edge, not worked as counted thread technique
• Running stitch, stem stitch, and closed counted herringbone stitch for the animals and footed crescents on the body
• Tiny tassels worked in beneath the long vertical patterns on either side of the neck opening and below the center medallion

The embroidery thread is silk in colors including red, brownish black, white, and greenish blue. There are three closely spaced ball buttons with loop closures on the collar, and three more widely spaced on the front opening.

For better view of motifs, see detail below

Close up view of neck edge. I apologize for the poor quality of this image, but i blew up the yoke scan, which results in a display of the low quality printing technique.
[i did this a long time ago and i don't recall what magazine it was in. This textile is in the Jameel Collection of the Ashmolean and is now on-line there http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EA1993.333]

Close up view of diagonally stitched motifs and tiny tassels. A little of the neck openwork is visible at the left.