The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 15, 2026

An irregular silk textile fragment features a diamond lattice pattern in muted tan and dark brown enclosing pairs of birds facing one another among stylized plant motifs. A horizontal band of dark and light stripes borders the bottom edge. Sloping downward to the right with jagged, frayed edges, the cloth exhibits a fine woven texture. Missing sections and tarnished threads reveal the fragment's age and delicate history.

Fragment

1420–1955

Iran or Iraq

Silk: compound twill weave
Overall: 20.2 x 27 cm (7 15/16 x 10 5/8 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1968.225.c
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The design is at right angles to warp.

Description

The weave provides different design for each side. On the front, the overall lozenge pattern has alternating rows of ornamented ovals and diamonds. The large diamonds have a large four-leaved motif super-imposed over a diamond with trees in each corner. The foliate ground with four pairs of opposed griffins fills the interspaces to the oval border. The diamonds have two opposed pairs of birds each flanking a Tree of Life and standing on a plant motif; these enclose a smaller central diamond with trees in each corner and a central square.

On the reverse, the plain ground of natural tan has two brown bands in large and small Kufic inscription.
  • ?-1968
    (Nassiri Amini, Tehran, Iran, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1968-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • “Annual Report for 1968.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 56, no. 6, 1969, pp. 209–248. Mentioned: p. 225 www.jstor.org
  • {{cite web|title=Fragment|url=false|author=|year=1420–1955|access-date=15 September 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.225.c