ivory

A long and broad piece of cloth made of woven cotton in ivory/cream colour with embroidery on the extremities of both narrow sides. The decoration consists of four (on one side three and a half) groups, each comprising three rows of three cypress trees in oblique arrangement, forming a square. The last group comprises three rows of two trees. Below each group is a series of six stylized floral patterns in a rectangular frame. The last group is made of five patterns. The trees are embroidered with coloured threads in various combinations of yellow, orange, red, lilac, mauve and pink; the stems green. The same colours are used for the decoration on the lower part, in different order and combination. One long side has a loom-woven selvedge (kenar), while the other long side, as well as the narrow ends, were simply cut with no special finishing. It should be noted that between each group of patterns there is a line made by removing a couple of threads. These lines marked the point where the cloth was intended to be cut lengthwise in order to make four separate girdles (uçkur/uşgur) out of it. This type of girdle had to be narrow, because it passed through the hem of the drawers or underwear. Since only the ends were visible, decoration was only applied on them. This example clearly shows that the girdles were first made in one piece and then cut. Its length is 2.02m and the total width 72cm. According to the marking shown by the drawn threads, they intended to make four separate girdles having a width of 20cm, 20cm, 18cm and 14cm respectively.

Girdle (uçkur/uşgur) which passes through the hem of the underwear (iç donu) and is fastened in front to show the two embroidered edges. It is made of silk in its natural, ivory colour. One long side has a loom-woven selvedge, the other three sides a narrow hem made with the sewing machine. The decoration consists of two different floral patterns side by side; the first comprises two flowers with five petals each, embroidered with blue or mauve and dark red thread. Between the petals are fine linear patterns in backstitch. The stems are yellow, the leaves off-white outlined in dark green. Between the two flowers, above and below, there are star-shaped motifs with a small hole in the middle. One drawn thread forms a line separating the flowers from the next pattern, namely two groups of three flowers in oblique arrangement with similar leaves and four stars. The colours here are bright pink (gypsy pink, çingene pembesi) for two flowers of each group, yellow for the stem and off-white for the leaves which have dark green contours. One flower in each group is dark red, another has two colours, off-white and dark red, with a dark green contour like the leaves. The embroidery is fine with well made filling stitch (dolgu işi), and backstitch (iğne ardı) for stems and other lines. Two girdles could be made out of this piece, each 14cm wide (total width 28cm). Length: 1.66m.

Man’s underwear girdle (erkek don uçkuru/uşguru) made of ivory cotton cloth. On all four sides it is finished with a hem made with a sewing machine. It is decorated with simple, fine embroidery in thin gold wire (tel). The decoration comprises four flowers, most probably stylized tulips, with four crosses between them. The stem of the flowers ends with horizontal projections, one on either side. The ground below is formed by six separate motifs with wavy outlines. The embroidery is made with filling stitch (dolgu işi) in fine execution. Width: 19cm. Length: 2.39m.