Red Coat with Pattern of Birds, Flowers and Lions

The careful composition of this coat belies that it is constructed from a number of different fabrics. The main textile is a red silk satin ground weave featuring small lions and birds nestled amidst pomegranates and flowers. The pattern has been rendered on such a small scale that one barely notices that the fabrics have been sewn together in such a way that the lions and birds appear upside-down to the viewer. The primary border features another complex weave, patterned with other colorful flowers and white deer. Smaller bands composed of black and yellow plain weaves and printed cotton known as qalamkari round out this coat. The interior has also been lined with a stunning silk ikat (the resist dyeing of the threads creates a pattern), adding another layer of complexity to this coat. Paintings from the late Safavid to Qajar periods show women in courtly settings wearing such delicate, outer-garments. This coat could have been worn in such a context and would certainly have been layered over other richly patterned dress textiles.