Embroidery was an essential part of every girl's dowry and played an important role in wedding ceremonies: each type of embroidery had a specific ritual meaning. Working on a single large panel could take up to two years. If it was a full embroidery (covering the entire surface of the base fabric or clothing), it would take even longer.
The types of stitches used in embroidery are quite diverse. In most regions of Uzbekistan, the bosma stitch and its variations (kandahahel, yakruya) are used. Double-sided embroideries (such as towels) were embroidered with the chindahahel (duriya) stitch. Another technique of double-sided double stitch, homduzi, was used for small items and was prevalent primarily in the Fergana Valley. The iroki half-cross stitch adorned duppi caps, as well as large decorative panels created in Shahrisabz and Kitab.
One of the oldest stitches is the tambour stitch yurma, which resembled a chain and was created with a needle or hook. It was most often used to outline the contours of patterns and border lines. For these reasons, it was applied at the very end, when the individual parts of the embroidery were already sewn into a whole piece. The contours of the patterns were also embroidered with the ilmok stitch. In Samarkand, this type of stitch was used only in the 50s–60s of the 19th century.
Different types of stitches can be found in a single embroidery, combined in a specific order. When creating a floral motif, the bosma and kandahahel stitches could alternate, stems and leaves were embroidered with the yurma stitch, and the lines separating the central field and the border were embroidered with the ilmok stitch. Each region favoured a particular stitch. For example, bosma was more often used in Nurata, Samarkand and Tashkent, kandahahel in Shahrisabz, and yurma prevailed in Bukhara. The embroidery of the pattern and the background with the same types of stitches (tagduzi) was not an exception.
The embroidery collection at the Naprstka Museum is represented by a number of suzani. The most valuable among them are the Nuratin suzani and the djoynamaz prayer rug from Tashkent, acquired by the Museum in 1899. The Tashkent school of embroidery is also represented by palaks dated around 1900, and the Bukhara school by the ruijo wedding cover from the second half of the 19th century.
You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "The Collection of the Czech Republic" (Volume XVI) in the series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in the World Collections".
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Do you know the types of stitches used in embroidery?
The art of embroidery was widespread among both the settled and semi-nomadic populations of the Uzbek Khanates. The inhabitants of the oases embroidered large-format interior panels to decorate their homes, while the steppe people used this type of needlework to decorate clothing and its parts, as well as to embellish various types of bags.