VERY RARE PHEASANT BANNER SURROUNDING A TREE OF LIFE, SAMITE - Lot 47

VERY RARE PHEASANT BANNER SURROUNDING A TREE OF LIFE, SAMITE SILK, CENTRAL ASIA, 7th-9th CENTURY. Representing two pairs of pheasants facing or leaning against each other around a long stylized flowering stem, clinging to leafy branches. The lines separated by exuberant florets, the whole flanked on either side by an arrangement of bands of applied monochrome silks. The border silks are of Chinese origin. 68.5 x 10.5 cm. Provenance: Private collection, Paris. Acquired on the Paris market. This elongated fragment is very elegant, with a very monumental, constructed motif. It is part of a rare group with this type of pheasant or peacock standing on winged palmettes, belonging to a style found in both Sassanid and Byzantine styles, as well as this highly structured tree of life that can be compared to those adorning a fragment preserved in Copenhagen, David Collection (24/1992). For a particularly similar fragment, see a small border published in: Francesca Galloway, Textile Splendours of the East, 24th June - 26th July 2019, p. 9, Cat. 6. A fragment featuring identical pheasants, described as 7th-8th century, is also in the David Collection, Copenhagen (Inv. no. 9/1996), as are two fragments in the Musée de Cluny, described as 9th century, Inv. (AEDTA3935;MA11773). This textile clearly belongs to a tradition found in both the Sassanid and Byzantine empires. The manufacture of complex textiles like this samite required great technological mastery and was extremely costly. These silk textiles quickly became indispensable to the Umayyad and then Abbasid court, whether used for clothing or drapery.