A Suite of Gold-Embroidered Cushion Covers, Bulgaria, 1869

This suite of cushion covers was lavishly embroidered in gold thread by Bella de Moses Judah Arie and completed in 1869. Bella was a member of the prominent, wealthy Arie family, Sephardic Jews from Vienna who settled in the town of Samokov (southwest Bulgaria) in 1793. The family built several magnificent houses in Samokov and also financed the construction of the synagogue, which was located directly in front of their largest home. Textiles such as these were often embroidered as part of a bridal trousseau. In private homes, they were used to cover the sofas arranged around the walls of a room. However, the Hebrew dedicatory inscription on all three covers suggests that they were donated to, or created for, the synagogue, perhaps to decorate the circumcision chair or the seat on which the bridal couple sat on the day of their wedding.

A highly similar, beautifully embroidered marriage canopy, in the collection of the Jewish Museum New York (#2000-89), was created just a year before this suite of cushion covers, in honor of Veneziana, a member of this same Arie family. See https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/27984-marriage-canopy.

Physical Description

Gold embroidery on blue silk. Two square cushion covers (18 x 20 in.; 460 x 510 mm) and one rectangle cushion cover (19 x 35 in.; 480 x 890 mm).

Literature

Esther Juhasz (ed.), Sephardi Jews in the Ottoman Empire: Aspects of Material Culture (Jerusalem: The Israel Museum, 1990), 68-74.