The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Rectangular textile fragment with thick, dark red dyed silk threads creating a solid background for fine linen threads creating organic shapes branching out from a rough zig-zag pattern horizontally across the textile. Regular zig-zag lines divide the upper and lower edges of the cloth, with mirrored repeating patterns like alternating large and small stylized flowers. Fine red threads detail each of these organic linen shapes with leaf shapes, "x" shapes, and beyond.

Fragment of a furnishing textile

possibly 1700s or 1800s

Africa, North Africa, Morocco, Azemmour, Moroccan embroiderer

Linen, silk, and dye
Overall: 27.9 x 80.6 cm (11 x 31 3/4 in.)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade 1916.1244
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This textile represents the work of at least four individuals: the person who prepares the fibers, the weaver, the dyer, and the embroiderer.

Description

Small bands like this decorated furnishings. They are distinctive to Azemmour, Morocco, where Jewish women embroidered them at home. This band’s red designs are floral and geometric; the scrolls may be abstracted dragons. Its Renaissance-era motifs reflect centuries of cross-Mediterranean exchange (especially with Portugal, which ruled Azemmour from 1513 to 1541). Such designs traveled to North Africa via printed pattern books. Patterns were transferred onto fabric, then the backgrounds were covered with filling stitches: plait and cross-stitches were used here. The production of these embroideries ceased around the mid-1900s because of cost and changing fashions.
  • Soenderholm, Ivan. "Arts of the Maghreb: North African Textiles." Jozan: Oriental rug news. January 30, 2025. www.jozan.net
    Paydar, Niloo Imami, and Ivo Grammet. The Fabric of Moroccan Life. Indianapolis, Ind: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2002. p. 94-95
    Denamur, Isabelle, Pierre Ferbos, and Louise Rogers Lalaurie. Moroccan textile embroidery. Paris: Flammarion, 2003. p. 184
    Alaoui, Rachida. Florilège de la broderie marocaine. [Milan]: Skira, 2011. p. 52-53
    Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. “Threads across Time: African Textiles, 500-1993.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 13. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 13.
  • Arts of the Maghreb: North African Textiles and Jewelry. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 3, 2024-October 12, 2025).
    Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment of a furnishing textile|url=false|author=|year=possibly 1700s or 1800s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.1244