Textile

Probably intended to be sewn onto a dress front, bag, etc., as a decorative element. The use of ‘dress flowers’ (gul-i-peron) is very wide-spread in the area and has a very long history. Examples have been found in burials dated before 400 BC.

Collected by Alan Davidson in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1982 and offered for sale at his Vancouver store, Terlingua.

Circular ‘dress flowers’ (gul-i-peron) incorporate emblems of good fortune such as beads, shells, metal thread and mirrors.

Multi-coloured embroidered and beaded square textile. The embroidery is predominantly orange, with deep pink and purple accents, worked in chain stitch on green silk background; the design field is divided into four identical quadrants, separated by rows of gold metallic braid. In each corner of the textile, and in the centre, are prominent multi-coloured discs (known as ‘dress flowers’); each disc is decorated with glass beads arranged in concentric circles around a small mirror. All edges of the square are trimmed with a short, heavy fringe of white glass beads. The discs are stiffened, probably with light weight cardboard. The piece is backed with red cotton textile.