DepartmentTextiles-Middle East
Thobe
NameDress
Place madeJaffa, Historic Palestine, Middle East or West Asia, Asia
Mediumlinen, silk, plastic
Dimensionsoverall: 1 M 46 CM X 1 M 34.5 CM
Credit LineIFAF Collection
Object numberFA.1972.25.5 A
Collections
FA. 72.25.5a Thõb (ca. 1915) (Fig. 29 and Plate 18) This is a ceremonial dress of a type worn in the Jaffa area, including Beit Dajan. It is handwoven, natural color linen. The sleeves are long and wide with a short point. Most of the embroidery is red silk cross stitch with an admixture of orange, purple, blue, and green. Unlike dress no. FA. 72.25-4a, this one has a qabbeh with a cypress border typical of the Coastal Plain. Also very typical of this region, still noted for its orange groves, are the columns of orange blossom branches at the beginning and end of each skirt side panel. The diyāl of this dress has the șnobar (“pine tree”) motif at the top and bottom. In between are several rows of motifs already familiar to us from Ramallah and Hebron. There is a single purple silk inset on each sleeve and on each side of the skirt. The insets are embroidered with multicolored silk and metallic couching and satin stitch. The blue velour yoke is embroidered with silver metallic and orange couching, and is edged with scalloped silk appliqué. There is scalloped cotton appliqué along the hem. It is embroidered with the fish-bone stitch (ḥabkeh or sabaleh) in multicolored silk thread with changes of color at equal intervals. The neck opening is decorated with tassels and beads. The use of the rather rough linen from which this dress is made was later replaced by a smoother weave and later still, during the period of the British mandate, by cotton. This dress is quite similar to an allegedly later one in the British Museum (illustrated in Weir, Palestinian Embroidery, Pl. 8). Length: 141 cm. Width: 81.5 cm. (Palestinian Costume and Jewelry, Yedida Kalfon Stillman, 1979 ISBN: 0-82630490-7)
