Appliqué

Appliqué panel from the Street of the Tentmakers, Cairo, Egypt. Appliqué panel from the Street of the Tentmakers, Cairo, Egypt. TRC 2013.0617.

Appliqué is a needlework technique, whereby a piece of cloth or other material is laid on top of another, normally larger piece and the two are stitched together, often to create a decorative effect. Such a combined piece of cloth may in its turn be stitched on top of another.

The use of appliqué can be traced back for at least 3300 years, and is probably much older. Some of the oldest examples of appliqué come from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun, who died in c. 1323 BC.

See also: Street of the Tentmakers, Cairo

Source: COATSWORTH, Elizabeth and Gale R. OWEN-CROCKER (2012). 'Appliqué', in: Gale Owen-Crocker, Elizabeth Coatsworth and Maria Hayward (eds., 2012). Encyclopedia of Medieval Dress and Textiles of the British Isles, c. 450-1450, Brill: Leiden, pp. 37-38.

GVE

Last modified on Wednesday, 05 October 2016 10:36
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