2-742-830 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Tapestry with golden lions and palmettes, 1200s or earlier. This colourful, robust pattern features spirited Iranian golden lions, traditional symbols of royalty, amid large palmette leaves on vines that repeat, facing alternate directions in an asymmetrical Chinese-inspired layout. The regular repetition of the design indicates that it was influenced by silk patterns that were preset on large drawlooms, whereas variations in the motifs and colours confirm it was woven by hand in the tapestry technique. The pattern was created with silk thread in 13 rich colours and gold thread on parchment strips wrapped around a yellow core for increased visibility. This luxury fabric served as a container, most likely for imperial correspondence, a forerunner of paper envelopes today.