[MR] Paisley in Period

[ldmolly at md.metrocast.net]

Hi All! I'd like to second Mistress Jessamyn on modern paisley prints. While my research is definitely not all-encompassing, I've had the pleasure of doing some research into Middle Eastern textiles for a Baronial project. 

There are some Ottoman patterns that spring to mind that can easily be "read" as paisley from a distance:

http://images.vam.ac.uk/item/O51984/part-of-a/
(Part of an Ottoman hanging in the collection of the Victoria & Albert museum, Item # 120&A-1899)

http://images.vam.ac.uk/item/O52266/hanging/
(Same collection, Item # T.62-1916)

http://images.vam.ac.uk/item/O53762/part-of-a/
(Same collection, Item # CIRC.695&A-1923)

When you look more closely at the motifs, they are clearly identifiable as leaves (or in some cases, tulips) and have not yet taken on the more modern paisley stylization. There is also a lot of good information linked from the site you posted about the origin of the boteh motif (http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/trade/paisley.htm#twinned). 

Please also note that a lot of the textiles I've pointed out above are very late in SCA period (think late-Elizabethan for a European perspective). Few period textiles take on the...I don't know...busyiness? of modern prints until much later.  

While there were often several motifs used in a period Ottoman textile, the motifs themselves were typically simple (while not a paisley, this pattern for example:  http://images.vam.ac.uk/item/O53880/hanging/ has fairly complex shapes, but the color and overall design repetition itself is fairly simple). 

>From what I can see of the textile collection at the V&A, the motif shape we recognize as a paisley started to really come into play during the 19th century, spawned from these earlier Middle Eastern motifs:

http://images.vam.ac.uk/item/O77006/shawl/
(Same collection, Kashmir shawl, Item # IS.2081A-1883)

http://images.vam.ac.uk/item/O79103/sari/
(Same collection, Sari, Item# IS.981-1883)

I don't know if this post will settle the "paisley debate", smile, but I'm hoping it will give folks an excuse to look at some amazing Ottoman textiles! Good luck with your search!

Molly
(Mary Isabel of Heatherstone, OL)