Showcase 46 (the beginning). Precious fabrics of Byzantium, Iran, Turkey of the XIVth to XVIIth centuries

There were no regular production of precious fabrics in Russia up to the XVIIIth century. Expensive custom-made textiles were brought to Russia by merchants and embassies. The earliest fabrics in the Armoury collection are Byzantine cross-patterned satins worn by clergymen and other embroidered clothes of the Russian nobility. The "large" sakkos (dalmatic) of Metropolitan Photius and the "small" one, which may also have belonged to him, are made of Byzantine fabric. The "small" sakkos is embroidered with the figure of Metropolitan Peter. And the "large" sakkos is embroidered in coloured silks, gold and silver with portraits of Grand Prince Vassily of Moscow, his wife Sofia, their daughter Anna and her husband (the future Emperor John Palaeologus of Byzantium) and also a portrait of Photius himself. All the portraits are framed with pearls. The portrait of a Russian prince together with the Emperor of Byzantium testifies to the growing importance of the Moscow state.

In the XVIth-XVIIth centuries permanent trading relations were set up between the Russian state and both Persia and Turkey. Silk fabrics from the Orient were held in high esteem at Tsars’ court. The Persian fabrics in the Armoury collection date back to the 17th century, a period which saw the flowering of Persian weaving. Persian satin, velvet, taffeta, damask and brocade of delicate colours (pale blue, pale pink, light green) were usually decorated with foliate ornament - carnations, tulips, narcissi, irises and hyacinths. Silk cloth woven with a very fine gold or silver thread was called altabas. This fabric, tight-woven and stiff, gave the impression of being cast from metal.

There was also a great demand for Turkish fabrics in Russia in the XVIIth century. Represented in the Armoury collection turkish satins, velvets and altabases stand out for their decorativeness and bright colours. As in Persian fabrics, foliate design predominated, but the pattern was larger and more colourful. One often finds ornament in the form of twelve-pointed stars and carnations in full bloom. The pomegranate was regarded as a symbol of good fortune. The larger the pattern, the more highly the fabric was prized.