Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 16. (Budapest, 1997)
PÁSZTOR Emese: „Tafota, melyre az virágokat írták"
"For the lining and braiding of the jakub I gave 4 thalers." 24 Two days later Pál Bornemisza purchased "45 sing taffeta, on which flowers were drawn" for a textile embroidered with skofium and klabodan on some kind of velvet base and stuffed with cotton". Later, besides purchasing "red velvet" and "yellow and blue silk [thread] for sewing" and gold and yellow klabodan", he had to pay "For the outlining of flowers in two places". 25 In the correspondence of György Rákóczi I we find a quotation from 1635 which fits this well: "I paid thirty real thalers for velvet; in addition for the drawing work on your taffeta ... 80 oszpora". 26 In the cases listed taffeta - in other words, canvas-stitch, thin silk fabric - was purchased for the heavy embroidery made on velvet. Afterwards, the purchasers had the desired pattern drawn on. The question is, how was the inscribed thin silk fabric used in the metal-thread embroidery done on velvet? The answer is given by microscopic examination of textiles resembling those mentioned in the sources. In photographs taken in the course of a microscope examination of velvet-covered, s£ó/7Mm-embroidered Turkish saddle-cloths (Ills. 3-4), bow-cases and quivers in the Esterházy Collection (Ills. 5-6), one can easily see the silk threads sticking out from the outlines of the metal-thread embroidery, silk threads which were usually light red, light orange, or, using the expression of the time, "body coloured", which contrasted strongly with the red of the velvet. The taffeta textile can also be seen in those places where the skofium embroidery has worn off or is loose (Ills 2, 8), and furthermore, within embroidered motifs - for example, within the petals of rosettes (111. 9). 27 Summing up the above, based on technical analysis of one group of velvet-based, metal-thread Turkish embroideries and on sources from the period, the course of the embroidery work can be recontructed as follows. The pre-drawn silk taffeta was placed on the surface of the velvet that was to be embroidered. Then, stretched on a frame and stitched to the velvet, it was embroidered according to the pattern using zerdûz or mar as stitching. When the embroidering was finished, the silk taffeta free of embroidery was removed by cutting around the edges of the embroidered motifs, with the result that the velvet became visible again. On work that was done, the taft was entirely covered by embroidery; where there was no embroidery it was cut off, and therefore could not be seen. With the aid of a microscope, however, the edges of fabric cut off around the outlines can be made out, as they can in those parts of the embroidered motifs where, because of lack of space, it was not possible to cut off the silk fabric. The source-data known to us refer only to Turkish embroidery. Nevertheless, taffeta was not used in all 17th-century OttomanTurkish metal-thread velvet embroidery. 28 At the same time it can be supposed that the technique was customarily used elsewhere, for which, however, the examination of additional textiles would be necessary.
