Collection Zaira et Marcel Mis, puis par descendance

Collection particulière belge, acquis en 2023

From the early sixteenth century onwards, brocaded silk sashes became an integral part of the formal attire of the Polish nobility. Their shape drew on Persian and Indian models, while their decoration incorporated Rococo elements from France. By the eighteenth century, these sashes had become a powerful symbol of Polish national identity (Maria Taszycka and Manfred Holst, ‘Symbols of Nationhood, History of the Polish Sash’, Hali, no. 84, January–February 1996, pp. 73–77).

Persian sashes had been imported into Poland via Turkey since the sixteenth century, but the Afghan invasion of Iran in 1722 brought this trade to an end. Production was subsequently taken up by Armenian craftsmen from Istanbul, some of whom emigrated to Poland, where they established a flourishing textile industry. One such centre was Slutsk (now in Belarus), where production began in 1758. King Stanisław Poniatowski also enlisted silk weavers from Lyon to establish workshops in Grodno, followed by further workshops in Kobyłka, Warsaw, Kraków, Gdańsk and Lipków during the second half of the eighteenth century. Lyonnais craftsmen also produced sashes in France for the Polish market.

The boteh palmettes visible here reflect Persian and Indian influences. The decorative arrangement of these sashes follows an almost invariable scheme, also found on the present example: two rectangular sections at either end, each adorned with a double motif, and a central length divided by narrow horizontal bands. A sash held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, produced by the workshop of Jacob Paschalis around 1790, features a design of palmettes and angular scrolling foliage closely related to that of the present piece (inv. 11.58.9).