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SHAKHRISABZ AREA, UZBEKISTAN, MID-19TH CENTURY The natural cotton ground embroidered, the field decorated with a meandering floral vine, the borders with large rosettes and a dense scrolling floral vine in between, backed 103 ? x 76 3/8in. (263 x 194cm.)
This finely embroidered suzani was originally in the collection of Sir William Burrell (1861-1958), a wealthy Scottish shipping merchant and philanthropist. Born in Glasgow in July 1861, Burrell is known to have started collecting art when he was still in his teens, a passion he pursued with relentless determination for the rest of his life. He married Constance Mary Lockhart Mitchell, the daughter of another ship owner in 1901. He was knighted in 1927 for his public work and services to the art world. Burrell bought extremely well and succeeded in forming a major collection in almost every field that he was interested in, from Roman glass and Elizabethan furniture to Chinese ceramics and Persian rugs. In 1944 Sir William and Lady Burrell donated their collection to the City of Glasgow. Burrell died at Hutton Castle, near Berwick-on Tweed, in March 1958 at the age of 96. He did not live to see a custom-built museum which finally opened in 1983 in Pollok Country Park to house his collection.
The Burrell Collection holds a small but important group of suzani embroideries which were all bought by Sir William in 1925 to be used at his home, Hutton Castle. This suzani would have probably been acquired at the same time. For a brief discussion on the Burrell Collection suzanis, see Norwich, 2010, p.72. There is another Shakhrisabz suzani in the Burrell Collection with very similar decoration in the central field and borders, although not as dense as our example (Norwich, 2010, p.72, fig.1).
Suzanis from the Shakhrisabz region are prized not only for their craftsmanship but also for their bold floral motifs and strong colours. There is a closely comparable suzani illustrated in Bausback, 1981, p.43. For Shakhrisabz suzanis which have sold in these Rooms recently, see 24 October 2019, lot 199; 26 October 2017, lot 251; and at Christie’s, South Kensington, 28 April 2017, lots 294 and 302.