The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin houses a quilted cap from Afghanistan, which was collected by Oskar von Niedermayer (1885-1948) when he was sent to Afghanistan by the German government to set up the Afghans against the British in India, during the First World War (1914-1918). The mission failed, and the German mission was forced to leave the country.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses a piece of embroidery from Switzerland, which has been dated to the fourteenth century. The embroidery is worked in silk on a linen ground. It measures 61.8 x 70.6 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum in New York holds a reliquary of St. Florian, which dates to the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries and originates from Austria. It measures 41.3 x 34.3 x 8.3 cm and is made of fabric with wax, glass, and with gold and silver thread embroidery.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses an intricately embroidered linen coif from Britain, made in the early seventeenth century. It measures 22.9 x 43.2 cm, and the embroidery is worked in silk and silver-gilt thread, together with spangles.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses a late seventeenth century needlecase with scissors. The needlecase itself was probably made in Britain, but the scissors have been given a Dutch origin. When closed, the needlecase measures 8 x 7 cm. The case is made of embroidered silk, velvet and flannel.
The Textile Research Centre (TRC), Leiden, houses a box and four ovals (two cushions and two 'real' covers) made of silk and embroidered in silk with floral motifs and, on two of the ovals, two texts, namely (in Dutch) bruid and bruidegom ('bride' and 'bridegroom') respectively (TRC 2014.1060a-e). The box and pads were intended to hold the wedding rings before the ceremony. The ensemble dates to 1827.
The Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden houses an envelope with a stamp issued in 1968 showing a woman from Madeira dressed in traditional local dress and working her embroidery, presumably Madeira work.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses an example of a so-called feestrok. These 'celebratory skirts' were made as part of a large-scale programme to celebrate the liberation of The Netherlands from German occupation in 1945. They were forms of patchwork. A comparable feestrok is held by the Textile Research Centre in Leiden (TRC 2011.0001). For further information on this programme, see here.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses a fragment of a cotton cloth with floral patterns embroidered in silk. It has been dated to around AD 1700 and its origin may be Iran or India. It measures 75.6 x 42.5 cm. It may belong to the same cloth as another fragment, also housed in the Rijkmuseum (BK-NM-3614).
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds a knitted and embroidered shawl that was reportedly exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was made of nettle fibre and measures 170 x 120 cm.
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The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses a woollen inlay patchwork (also known as mosaic patchwork or intarsia work) from the UK, showing a nostalgic, rustic scene. It dates to the mid-nineteenth century and measures 43 x 46.1 cm. Details are added with silk thread and simple stitches.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses an embroidered napkin or towel. It is a type of cloth, decorated along the two short ends, which is called a yaglik. It dates to the mid-nineteenth century. It is made of cotton, with silk thread and metal thread embroidery. It measures 245 x 35 cm. Stitches used are the double running stitch, the musabak stitch and the satin stitch.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses a large number of embroidered napkins or towels, called yaglik in Turkish. One particular specimen discussed and illustrated here dates to the nineteenth century and is made of linen with silk thread and metal thread embroidery. It measures 110.5 x 49 cm. Stitches used are the double running stitch and the fishbone stitch.
In the Turkish world, the word yaglik originally referred to a piece of cotton or linen, rectangular in shape, of various sizes, which was used as a napkin. It was often embroidered at both ends. In later years, the word referred to an embroidered textile that was used to decorate the house or for other purposes, on special occasions. Young brides often had yagliks in their trousseau.