An Ottoman silk embroidered quilt cover (yorgan yüzü), probably Epirus, Northwest Greece, Ottoman Empire,

Originally purchased from Christopher Gibbs in the 1960's

The format of this textile would suggest that it was probably woven as a yorgan yüzü (quilt cover) in the Turkish-style. As in this instance and in that of lot number 53 of this catalogue such quilt facings were typically woven on a linen ground and were composed of three or four strips joined vertically. For other Ottoman Turkish yorgan yüzü (quilt covers) with ascending pomegranate palmettes issuing elongated split leaves, see: Taylor, Roderick R., 'Quilt Facings and Mirror Covers, Turkish Domestic Embroideries', Hali, Issue 51, p. 123 and Erber, Christian, (ed.), A Wealth of Silk and Velvet, Ottoman Fabrics and Embroideries, Bremmen, 1983, pp. 222-5, nos. S 4/3 and S 4/4. 

In the Ottoman culture of the 16th to the 19th centuries beds were not the fixed pieces of furniture that we expect today but were composed of pillows, quilts, sheets and mattresses, all stored away by day and made up again at night. Each component of bedding was embellished with domestic embroidery usually as part of a prospective bride's trousseau. The decorated quilt cover was an important part of the nightly bedding ritual and being the most visible, was therefore, the most ambitiously embroidered.

In this example the drawing appears to be in a freely executed style associated with Epirus production with its crenellated leaves and luscious palmettes. An originally formal and fairly static Ottoman court ogival lattice and palmette repeat design (such as that published in Ellis, Marianne and Wearden, Jennifer, Ottoman Embroidery, London, 2001, p. 34, pl. 4) is loosely interpreted with vines that almost become an ogival lattice and elements that may be based upon the cusped crowns of early Turkish examples now appearing as bow shaped leaf sprays.