DepartmentTextiles-Asia
Thobe
NameDress
Artist
Artist unrecorded
Dateca. 1920s - 1930s
(not assigned)Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine Territory, Middle East or West Asia, ASIA
MediumLinen, silk
Credit LineGift of Florence Dibell Bartlett
Object numberA.1955.86.914
DescriptionOld #3353 Thõb (1920s or 1930s) (Fig. 22 and Plate 10) This dress is an unusual Ramallah winter dress. It is of black linen with typical Ramallah cross stitch embroidery, using mainly red silk, interspersed with some greens, reds, blues, purples, black, and white. What makes this dress so unusual are the full-length, narrow, rounded sleeves which are more characteristic of the Coastal Plain. The sleeves have three orange and red heremsy silk insets, or sawāʻid, which are decorated with Bethlehem couched work. There is also some gold metallic couching on the qabbeh, including a rosette with the sign of the cross in place of the cow's eye often found in the middle of the qõs. The yoke on the shoulders is of purple silk. Each half of the wide, embroidered, vertical bands on the front and back of the skirt is a mirror image of the other half. Starting from the right or left edge and moving toward the center of the bands, the motifs are: (a). zambūq (“lilies”); (b). waraq el-ʻaynab or ‘erq ed-dalia (“grape leaf or daliah branch”); (c). abu 'l- ‘aynān (“an eight-petal flower”). On top of the diyāl or back hem panel are three cocks (dik). This dress is quite similar, except for the cut of the sleeves, to one photographed by Grace Crowfoot in the 1930s (see Weir, Palestinian Embroidery, Pl. I). . Length: 137 cm. Width: 90 cm. (Palestinian Costume and Jewelry, Yedida Kalfon Stillman, 1979 ISBN: 0-82630490-7)Other: Cross-stitch pattern, book from Europe was used as a guide in the design (?)
