DepartmentTextiles-Middle East
Thobe
NameWedding Dress
Artist
Artist Not Recorded
Dateca. late 1930s
Place madeBayt Dajan or Beit Dajan, Nablus, West Bank, Palestine Territory, Middle East or West Asia, Asia
Mediumvelvet, silk
Dimensionsoverall: 1 M 42 CM X 1 M 38 CM (SLEEVE TIP TO SLEEVE TIP)
Credit LineIFAF Collection
Object numberFA.1972.25.4 A
Collections
A. 72.254a Thõb (late 1930s) This wedding dress from Beit Dajan is made of red-brown European velvet. It bears ample witness to the popularity of Bethlehem couched work in the Coastal Plain during the period of the British mandate. The dress is heavily embroidered in metallic couching filled with multicolored silk thread in the satin stitch. The motifs are also typically Bethlehem. The qabbeh has the central sharbeh (“water pitcher”) which curves around into four seʻāt (“watches”) or naʻūrāt (“water wheels”). The skirt, sleeves, and yoke are covered with ‘arūq el-ward (“rose branches”). The insets on the sleeves (sawā’id), and those on the side of the skirt (benāyeq), are of blue and red-brown velvet rather than the heremsy silk one finds on Bethlehem dresses. The yoke is of blue velvet. Two rows of the Bethlehem tree of life, on top of which sits the distinctive, lizardlike Bethlehem bird, are emboridered on the diyāl. Around the hemline and at the wrists there is red-brown scalloped linen appliqué covered with silk embroidery. Scalloped silk appliqué borders both the qabbeh and the yoke. This dress is worn with a belt such as FA. 72.25_5b. a Length: 136.5 cm. Width: 82.5 cm. (Palestinian Costume and Jewelry, Yedida Kalfon Stillman, 1979 ISBN: 0-82630490-7)
