Silk Embroidered Box Necklace
In period, these boxes were made of gold. According to Sir John Chardin (a French Jeweler, who visited Persia in the 17th cent.) , the boxes contained sweets with a slit in the back filled with Ambergrease. As I do not do metalwork, I made my box of cardboard covered with brocade. The front is embroidered in Musaif style embroidery. Musaif is completed in double running and double darning stitches. The image is taken from an early 17th ruyi qabā. This qabā was an entirely embroidered with a repeat of the central figure design. (Plate 55) The color image I have of this qabā appears to have the background in black. I decided to use black as the background so that it would look the same as the color image. However, most likely this was either a dark blue or dark green in period. The dyes used to make these colors frequently oxidized to black over time. Black was seldom used as it was considered an unlucky color. Please see the article on the website on embroidery for full documentation regarding Persian embroidery.