An embroidered robe, Persia or Central Asia, first half 14th century

The embroidered decoration of this robe is related to a hanging with comparable multilobed medallions filled with scrolls, though with polychrome embroidery, published in the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection (Grube 2001, p.3, fig.5), another published in HALI, no.120, p.113, and two further examples in the al-Sabah collection (Spuhler 2020, nos.8 and 9). The attribution of these textiles to the fourteenth century was supported by carbon testing, and Grube suggests that they could form a group of early precursors to the production of suzanis (Grube, op.cit., p.3). Spuhler attributes these textiles to the findspot of Samangan in Northern Afghanistan, that he describes as notable for ‘its large number of caves, which have served as dwellings, storehouses and places of shelter’ (Spuhler, op.cit. p.17). 

Measurements:

126cm from collar to lower hem

235cm from sleeve to sleeve