A case study on peshkirs in the ege university ethnography museum

A “Peshkir” is a special type of Anatolian cloth used as a hand towel, cover, or napkin in daily life in the Ottoman era of Turkey. The most beautiful examples of Turkish embroidery and of unique motifs are seen on peshkirs from the 16th –17th Centuries. The change caused by westernization in the early 19th century reflected on the field of arts and showed its effect especially on embroidery and design motifs. Western-influenced flower motifs came to be applied in traditional Turkish arts, for example as vase-flowerpot-plate, fruit motifs on plate-basket, ribbon, and flower bouquets. Today, traditional peshkirs are included in the collections of national and foreign museums. One of these museums is Ege University Ethnography Museum in İzmir, Turkey, which hosts many domestic textiles and cultural objects, including embroidered peshkir examples in different designs. The place of peşhkirs and their importance in daily life is a subject worthy of research in terms of the sustenance of cultural heritage. In this context, six embroidered peshkirs with a composition of flowers from the 19th century are studied and evaluated in terms of their design composition, type, techniques, and motifs.