Cast metal Button 500 BC
Carved ivory Button 11AD
Turkish and Persian Woven Buttons
By: THL Satine de la Courcel
Buttons can be used as a great accessory on Persian and Turkish coats. By examining miniatures and extant samples from the sixteenth century we will find many options. Some surviving buttons from Persepolis show us cast metal and carved Ivory Buttons. (Sold in 2003 by Arts of Persepolis)
Cast metal Button 500 BC | Carved ivory Button 11AD |
They also used pearl closures. Titians: Portrait of Caterina Coronaro as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 1542 is just one example.
 Pearl buttons detail Titian: Portrait of Caterina Coronaro as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, 1542 |
By viewing miniatures in books by Roxburgh, Welch, A. and Welch, C. we see indications of a cast metal or gemstone used on coats
 Drawing, buttons detail (Welch, S. pg .212) | |
 Miniature detail 16th century (Roxburgh p 230) |  Lady with a fan Miniature detail (Welch, A plate 7) |
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 Woven buttons, detail 16th century caftan, (Rogers p. 19) |  Woven buttons, detail 16th Century Caftan (Rogers p. 7) |
To make the woven types of buttons the following materials are needed:
Embroidery Floss
Needles, with a large enough eye for 6 strands of Embroidery floss to go through
Wooden beads
Scissors
Beeswax
Step 1: Run your floss over the beeswax 2-3 times to wax your floss. The wax helps keep the floss from separating and fraying. Pass the thread through the bead leaving a four-six inch tail.
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Step 2: Take thread thru the bead an odd number of times. Use an odd number of wraps for single color base for your button. Leave a small amount of bead showing between each pass you wrap (B).
A) | B) |
Step 3: Using a contrasting color Start by going under one strand and over the next.
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Step 4: When you get back to the beginning, you will go over the first strand which was an under when you started.
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Step 5: Repeat until you have a "checkerboard" pattern.
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| Examples of various woven buttons on Persian Qaba’ | |
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Palace of Gold and Light, treasures from the Topkapi, Istanbul. Palace Arts Foundation, Istanbull, 2000 (Exhibition catalogue)
Robinson B. W. Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library: A Descriptive Catalogue. Sotheby Park Bennett. 1980
Rogers, J. M. ed. The Topkapi Sarray Museum, Costumes, Embroideries and Other Textiles. Thames & Hudson. 1986
Rogers, J.M. ed. The Topkapi Sarray Museum, Albums and Illustrated Manuscripts. Thames & Hudson 1986
Roxburgh, David. The Persian Album 1400-1600 From Dispersal to Collection. Yale University Press. 2005
Welch, Anthony. Artists for the Shah: Late sixteenth Century painting at the Imperial Court of Iran.
Yale University Press 1986
Welch, Start Cary, Wonders of the Age, Masterpieces of Early Safavid Painting. 1507-1576
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. 1979
Websites
http://rubens.anu.edu.au/turkey/konya/mevlana_tekke/museum/textiles/clothing/ (Last accessed 1/2/08)
http://www.virtualuffizi.com/uffizi1/Uffizi_Pictures.asp?Contatore=302 (Last accessed 1/2/08)