Rare Egyptian Silk & Gold Brocade Textile

This unusual hand-woven, brocade crimson red silk cloth is richly decorated with additional turquoise-blue silk and gold-wrapped thread. The quantity of gold thread employed has made the textile especially heavy.

The motifs comprise a lattice of diagonal lozenges filled alternatively with a pharaoh-like figure wearing a tall crown, Nile lilies, and the wings of Isis as borders for each diagonal lozenge.

Small lozenges are filled with Arabic script which translate variously as ‘Sohag Manufacture’ and ‘Long Live the King’.

Sohag is an ancient city that has been a significant spinning and weaving centre. It is located on the West Bank of the Nile in southern Egypt.

The reference to the ‘King’ presumably is to the King of Egypt or more fully the ‘King of Egypt, Sovereign of Nubia, Sudan, Kordofan, and Darfur’ which was the title used by the ruler of Egypt between 1922 and 1951.

The fashion for ancient Egyptian motifs was set off in many parts of the world with the discovery in 1922 of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun at Luxor in Egypt, funded by the English aristocrat Lord Carnarvon. It was a British success and so Egypt-mania swept through not only Britain, but also its colonies. The manner of the weaving suggests French influence.

It is likely that this piece, which is the full length of fabric as it was woven and has remained uncut, was a special, likely one-off, commission. It would have been expensive when it was made and possibly was intended as a particularly luxurious gift.

Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads.

This is a particularly scarce textile. The condition is superb – it is bright, crisp, and uncut or altered. It is a museum-worthy piece, or appropriate for an important collection.