Antique silk embroidery - Embroidered textiles - Ethnic embroideries - Tribal embroideries

More about our silk embroidered textiles....

Most of our antique and contemporary silk embroidered textiles are Uzbek households nammed Suzani. Suzani means in Persian "needle work" and it refers to hangings or coverings all decorated with embroidery patterns. There were different kind of suzanis which size, shape and designs reflect the different religious beliefs, lifestyle and cultural differences of Central Asian people.

At the late nineteenth century using silk embroidery technique to decorate was within everybody's reach, both popular and common in Central Asia and silk embroidered textiles played an important role in the daily life. Nomadic and settled women decorated costume, wall, bedding textiles with silk embroidery. At the early twentieth century silk embroidery products began to lose their original function and came to be used exclusively for decorative purposes to beautify the home like wall hangings and other decorative embroidered textiles such as niche curtains, prayer mats, blankets, bedpreads, mirror pouches. One of the most beautiful ethnic silk embroidery of traditionnal Central Asia culture was the large silk embroidered piece from Uzbekistan called suzani. They formed an important part of a bride's dowry. Suzani comes from the Persian word for "needle" and it refers to hangings or coverings all decorated with silk embroidery patterns requiring much labour from all women of the same family. Uzbek suzanis had a variety of tribal silk embroidery motifs according to four principal towns of Uzbekistan : Boukhara, Samarkand, Tachkent et Shakriziabz. These antique silk embroideries produced for households and daughters' dowries have actually a remarkable success and hence appears on the market new hand-embroidered suzanis which size, shape, designs and colours are similar to the antique silk embroidered pieces.