Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-j7cmm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T12:13:26.536Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Microanalysis of Persian Textiles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Ian R. Hardin  and
Frances J. Duffield
Frances J. Duffield*
Affiliation:
Department of Consumer Affairs Auburn University, Alabama 36849
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Metallic yarns, particularly those wrapped with gold and silver, have been used throughout much of recorded history to create fabrics and garments of surpassing beauty which exemplified splendor and opulence. Extant examples are valued not only for their beauty, but also for their historical significance. The physical assessment of these fabrics usually includes a visual examination to ascertain the weave structure and fibre colors. Optical microscopic examination can add to this information, but it is limited at higher powers of magnification by an increasing loss of depth of field.

Information

Type
Medieval and Safavid Carpets and Textiles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 1-2: The Carpets and Textiles of Iran: New Perspectives in Research , 1992 , pp. 43 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

1 B.A. Schrier and R.B. Bresee, “History of Decorative Metallic Yarns”, American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists Book of Papers--1979, pp. 137-140.

2 Exodus, 39:3-15.

3 Weibel, A. Two Thousand Years of Textiles (New York, 1952), p. 7Google Scholar.

4 M. Braun-Ronsdorf, “Gold and Silver Fabrics from Medieval to Modern Times”, CIBA Review, No. 3 (1961), p. 8.

5 Weibel, op. cit., p. 7.

6 Ibid., p. 10.

7 Forbes, R.J. Studies in Ancient Technology (London, 1950), p. 181Google Scholar.

8 Hughes, T. English Domestic Needlework (London, 1966), p. 57Google Scholar

9 Hoke, E. and Petrascheck-Heim, I., “Microprobe Analysis of Gilded Silver Threads from Mediaeval Textiles”, Studies in Conservation, Vol. 22 (1977), pp. 49-50.Google Scholar

10 Anonymous, Scientific American Supplement, Vol. 17, No. 451 (1884), p. 7196.Google Scholar

11 Hughes, T. English Domestic Needlework (London, 1966), p. 61Google Scholar.

12 Pliny the Elder, Natural History (Cambridge, 1961), H. Rackham, Ed., Loeb Classical Library, Book XXXIII, x x .

13 Allan, J.W. Persian Metal Technology 700- 1300 A.D. (London, 1979), pp. 1; 12.Google Scholar.

14 Schrier and Bresee, op. c i t . , pp. 137-140

15 Serjeant, R.B., “Material for a History of Islamic Textiles up to the Mongol Conquest”, Ars Islamica Vol. XI-XII (1946), p. 98Google Scholar and n.1.

16 Diba, L.S., “Visual and Written Sources: dating of Eighteenth Century Silks”, Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart, ed. Bier, C. (Washington, D.C., 1988), pp. 94-95.Google Scholar

17 Pope, A.U., An Introduction to Persian Art Since the SeventhCentury (New York, 1931), p. 123.Google Scholar

18 Pope, A.U., Masterpieces of Persian Art (New York, 1945), p. 46.Google Scholar

19 Braun-Ronsdorf, op. cit., p. 7.

20 Barrett, D., “The Islamic Art of Persia”, Legacy of Persia, Arberry, A.J., ed. (Oxford, 1953), p. 122.Google Scholar

21 de Mans, R., Estat de la Perse en 1660, C. Schefer, ed. (Paris, 1890) p. 186.Google Scholar

22 Chardin, J., Sir John Chardin's Travels in Persia (New York, 1972), pp. 268, 277, 278.Google Scholar

23 Anonymous, Tadhkiratal-Mulūk: A Manual of Safavid Administration, Minorsky, V., trans. (London, 1943), pp. 30Google Scholar, 58-61, 128-132. The authors are indebted to Annette Ittig for this reference.

24 Wulff, H.E., The Traditional Crafts of Persia (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), pp. 40-43.Google Scholar

25 Allan, op. cit., pp. 1-21.

26 Chardin, op. cit., pp. 268, 277, 278.

27 Kinnier, J.M. A Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire (reprint of 1813 edition), (New York, 1973), p. 251Google Scholar.

28 Malcolm, J., “Selection I. Industry and Foreign Trade, 1800”, from The Melville Papers, in The Economic History of Iran, ed. Issawi, C. (Chicago, 1971), pp. 262-273.Google Scholar

29 Sykes, P. A History of Persia (London, 1951), vol. I, p. 34Google Scholar.

30 Everhart, T.E. and Thornley, R.F.M., Journal of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 37 (1960), p. 246.Google Scholar

31 Petrascheck-Heim, I., Neus aus Alt-Villach, 7. Jahrbuch des Stadtmuseums Villach (1970), pp. 56-190.Google Scholar

32 Hoke and Petrascheck-Heim, op.cit., pp. 49-62.

33 Reath, N.A. and E.B. Sachs, Persian Textiles and Their Techniques from the Sixth to the Eighteenth Centuries Including a System for General Textiles Classification (New Haven, 1937), p. 3.Google Scholar

34 Stoldulski, L.P., Mailand, H.F., Kennedy, D. Nauman, and , M., “Scanning Electron Dispersive X-Ray and Atomic Emission Spectrographic Studies of Precious Metal Threads from European, Middle Eastern and Oriental Textiles”, Applications of Science in Examination of Works of Art (Boston, 1983), pp. 76-91.Google Scholar

35 Indictor, N. and Koestler, R.J., “The Identification and Characterization of Metal Wrappings of Historic Textiles Using Microscopy and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry: Problems Associated With Identification and Characterization”, Scanning Electron Microscopy (1986), pp. 491-497.Google Scholar

36 Indictor, N., Koestler, R. J., Blair, C., and Wardwell, A. E., “The Evaluation of Metal Wrappings from Medieval Textiles using Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometry”, Textile History, Vol 19/1 (1988), pp. 3-22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Hardin, I.R. and Duffield, F.J., “Characterization of Metallic Yarns in Historic Persian Textiles by Microanalysis”, Historic Textile and Paper Materials: Conservation and Characterization Advances in Chemistry Series, No. 212 (1986), pp.231-252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Ackerman, P., “Persian Weaving Techniques A. History”, A Survey of Persian Art, ed. Pope, A.U. and Ackerman, P. (London, 1964), vol. V, pp. 2197-98; 2219.Google Scholar

39 Chardin, p. 268.

40 Reath and Sachs, op. cit., pp. 83,84.

41 Anderson, C.A. and Hassler, M.F., X-Ray and Optical Microanalytical Congress -- 4th International (1965), p 310.Google Scholar

42 Stodulski, Mailand, Nauman, and Kennedy, op. cit., pp. 76-91

43 Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, p.30

44 Correspondence from Michael L. Bates to Annette Ittig, August 12, 1989.

45 (Ed. (ai) note: Precious metal content in coinage varied from time to time; for example, silver coinage was debased on more than one occasion during the Safavid period: Tadhkirat al-Mulūk, p. 130.)