A beautiful Vintage Suzani hand made in central Uzbekistan using cotton threads of mid blue, dark green, light red, maroon, and brown, on a cream cotton ground.
Size: 222 x 157cm
As this is a vintage piece, and as such there may be minor imperfections such as small marks. The suzani edges are made of selvages and turned under stitched edges, so will not fray. There is no backing and therefore the needlework is visible on the back.
Suzanis are can be both useful and highly decorative. They can make a lovely table cloth or bed spread, but one of my favourite uses is as a wall hanging to decorate a large wall space. If you can bear for it not to remain intact, they also make beautiful cushion covers, or used in upholstery as fabulous ottoman or chair covers.
It is tradition in Uzbekistan that young girls in the family prepare embroidered panels for their dowry. When a girl was born, traditionally her mother would start hand embroidering the Suzani for her, and from early age girls were taught the art by their mothers and grandmothers, from whom they took over the work as they grew capable. Suzanis were prepared by women inside a family to impress the future husband and his family, & to be presented to him on the wedding day.
While they were produced by the bride to be to show her devotion to her future husband, it was not uncommon that in lean times suzanis were battered away to a travelling Gypsy for money or other essentials that may be produced from the depths of his donkey cart.
The story of each vintage or antique suzani is as rich as it's colours and as intricate as the patterns that make it so beautiful.