Gold embroidery art

Gold embroidery is really one of the most graceful crafts. Thanks to its beauty this art form quickly spread from Babylon to other countries. In the territory of Uzbekistan, according to the archaeological finds, gold embroidery has been known since ancient times. The images of the people dressed in elegant clothes of gold embroidery on unique murals of walls of VI-VIII century palaces of Afrasiab, Varahsha confirm this. This art also very much prospered at the court of Amir Timur in the XIVth century and became the official court art - magnificent clothes and sumptuous coverlets for needs of the court nobility were embroidered.

By the end of the XIXth century this craft found its continuation at the court of Bukhara emirs, being one of the most unique kinds of embroidery and having enriched this art form with the manufacture of unique products. A considerable number of objects of gold embroidery have remained up today from Bukhara emirs of Nasrullo (1827-1860), Abdulahad-khan (1895-1911) and Alim-khan (1911-1920) when this art reached the greatest heyday.

In the ХIХth  and XXth centuries in gold embroidery masters used both imported factory fabrics and fabrics of local manufacture. Velvet was especially popular. Besides velvet, silk, woolen fabrics, leather were also embroidered. Velvet was used basically for embroidery of man's dressing gowns. Silk fabrics were used to manufacture female shirts, head bandages, man's belts.

Semi silk fabrics were used for manufacturing of household goods: suzane, prayer rugs, cushion covers. Only leather galoshes for females were embroidered which they wore with boots on a soft sole. The most widespread colour for man's dressing gowns was: red, violet, dark blue, green, and for female and children's clothes mainly red and violet colour was characteristic.

What are these gold and silver threads which were used for embroidery?  It is a thin metal thread, tightly spun on silk. For its manufacturing a silver alloy was used and to receive gold colour the thread was covered with gilding. Another variety of a gold thread is - « wire-drawn », i.e. silver, thin flattened out wire, white and gilt. Both these varieties were the basic material in Bukhara gold embroidery. Their manufacturing was known already in Babylon and ancient Egypt. They were brought to Central Asia from India, Iran. From the second half of the XIXth century these threads were brought from Moscow and to Russia from the East. Besides gold threads, coloured twisted and not twisted silk were widely used for introduction of additional colouring in a pattern and for the attachment of a gold thread to a fabric.

Masters of gold embroidery in Uzbekistan create amazing hand-made products – skullcaps, suzane, dressing gowns, prayer rugs and many other things, and even today - each product is a true work of art.