OTTOMAN EMBROIDERY

example shows greater internal stylistic consistency. That the drawing ranges from a higher style to a more provincial one, both within the group and on individual pieces, is seen again and again. The tulips on one example are close analogues to those on appliqué kaftans of the sultans ( III , 2), yet the overall field pattern of the same tulip square has tiger stripes drawn so clumsily that they are barely recognisable. This rendition is quite different to the version that

appears in another of our group, where the tiger stripes and balls are drawn in the sinuous style of contemporaneous brocades and velvets ( II , 12). Other motifs are striking in their fidelity to classical models. The articulation of the vines in two of our embroideries ( VI , XII ) resembles the vine stems in an Ottoman velvet (15). The rendering of the ‘clouds and triple balls’ border on ( IV ) is equally closely modelled, with the cloud forms flanking the three balls

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StephenPetegorsky