Coptic Roundel Embroidery

I recently made a start on a project that I have wanted to attempt for a long time but which has slightly intimidated me.

When I first got involved in the SCA and was interested in embroidery, I saw this piece of Coptic embroidery from the 7-8th century CE which is held in the V&A Museum .

Search Results | V&A Explore the Collections (vam.ac.uk)

(This is one of the other pieces assumed to be from the same tunic and held by the V&A Museum)

I loved the colours, and the unusual, almost cartoonish quality of the piece. I also loved the richness of the colour and texture of the densely worked stitches. I didn't know anything about the Coptic culture, but I knew that one day I would attempt something based on this piece.

The Copts were Christians from Egypt. Originally the term was used for all Egyptians, but came to mean Christians after the Muslims conquered Egypt in 639-646 CE (Wikipedia). These embroidered roundels have Christian imagery on them, and are from the seventh or eighth century.

The Egyptian culture is so old; Egypt has been a centre of global commerce for a very long time, and during the middle ages was at the axis of trading systems which linked Asia, Africa and Europe. There were two branches of the Silk Road there, with Alexandria (Mediterranean Sea), and Berenice (Red Sea), and a connecting road allowed products to travel between the two cities (and by extension, Asia to Europe and vice versa). There have been examples of Chinese silks and ceramics found in ancient sites, suggesting the great extent of the trade going on (UNESCO Silk Roads Program).

 The extant piece of embroidery is one of three in the same style (V&A accession numbers 814-1903, 815-1903 and 816-1903,), and all are quite big (around 20cm). I decided that an easy way to get a start on a project like this would be to start with some small roundels adapted from the border design of hearts (apples? modified arrowheads?,) and flower shapes. I have drawn up simple patterns for these and traced them onto scrap  linen with a Frixion marker. I am unsure how designs would have been drawn on at the time of construction of the original piece; perhaps ink, sharpened charcoal or chalk/ochre. In the sixteenth century, ink was definitely used to draw out embroidery designs, because there are extant unfinished examples showing the ink lines. I haven't seen any extant pieces from this time or region showing exactly how they did it.

As I have done more reading about Coptic textiles, I realise that I was lucky to find this piece as embroidery on Coptic tunics is relatively uncommon. Of the many extant clothing pieces (tunics) from the region that have been preserved by the hot and dry climate, the majority are highly decorated, and the main form of decoration is woven into the cloth. The V&A suggests that this unusual series of embroidered pieces may have been embroidered or imported by a non-Egyptian and that they were probably all from the same tunic.

The V& A Museum believes that these roundels may have been worn by a Coptic priest, possibly due to the religious scenes embroidered in the roundels (the Annunciation and Visitation). However, lay people and clergy wore the same type of decorated tunics. The tunic may have looked similar to this 6-8th century CE child's tunic held by the Walter's Art Museum – all extant tunics that I have seen follow a similar style.

 Tunic | The Walters Art Museum

The description of the pieces on the V&A Museum website simply lists embroidery on linen. The excellent zoom feature on the site allows the user to zoom right in for a closer look. The stitches look to be a combination of long and short stitches, split stitches and forms of couching.

I plan to use my mini-roundels on a tunic for a child, and so I opted to use split stitch. I like the speed with which long and short stitch works up, but I felt that split stitch would probably be more durable as the stitches are more densely packed and closely anchored.

I used silk floss on linen and will apply the roundels as slips. The original seems to have been worked straight onto the linen background, but kids grow out of things so fast that it seems like a good idea to do slips so they can be removed and reused if need be.

I love the lustre of the finished product but was very surprised at how long it took to work just one roundel. It has certainly given me an appreciation of just how prestigious a garment the original would have been, as well as how the embroidery would have glowed in the light.

When I have finished the current series of floral designs, I may experiment with using long and short stitches/satin stitches – perhaps on the 'heart' design. I have knotted my threads off on the back of the piece for extra durability.

Websites accessed

New World Encyclopedia 'Copts' Silk Road - New World Encyclopedia - accessed 29/10/22

Pinterest Pinterest -accessed 29/10/22 – well, daily, really :-)

UNESCO Silk Roads Program Egypt | Silk Roads Programme (unesco.org) - accessed 29/10/22

V&A Museum Search Results | V&A Explore the Collections (vam.ac.uk) - accessed 29/10/22

Walters Art Museum Tunic | The Walters Art Museum - accessed 29/10/22

Wikipedia 'Copts' Copts - Wikipedia - accessed 29/10/22