Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (35.1994)

Fig. 2 a, b

Woman's, giiTs or boy's kaftan, 19th century
Turkey or the Balkans
lnv. No. MNW Szt 2773
In the National Museum sińce 1953

This form of festive coat was commonly worn throughout the provinces of
Anatolia and Turkish Rumelia, as well as in the Balkans, particularly Albania and
Greece. The Sadberk Hanim Museum in Istanbul, which includes in its collections
Turkich arts and crafts objects, owns a dress very similar in style and ornamentation to
this costume belonging to the Warsa w National Museum. The Royal Ontario Museum
in Toronto owns a number of sleeveless festive dresses and dresses with open sleeves
sown onto the shoulders whose style and embellishments match those belonging to
the Warsaw collection identicaMy. V. Gervers, author of a study of the Toronto
collections, dates these dresses back to the middle of the 19th century, while
identifying their places of origin as being either in Albania, Greece or Macedonia.
Similar dresses from the Greek province of Attica, known as seguna or grizos, have
been preserved in the Museum of Greek Folk Arts in AthensTThe embroidered pattern
of the dresses described here is also to be found on a man's overcoat madę of crimson
velvet dating back to the 1 9th century and belonging to the Institut du Monde Arabe
in Paris (No. A 1 88-7).

The dress measures 93 cm in length from the front and 1 02 cm from the back, while
the skirt flarę width is 240 cm. This is a festive coat, similar in cut to a kaftan, cleaved at
the front, sleeve!ess and with openings for the arms with a smali stand-up collar. The
coat was adjusted to fit the waist, opening out into a wide beli. It is madę of a thick,
brown cloth weighted by applique work. The dress is lined with silk fabric in narrow
stripes of amaranthine, red and peacock blue. Thickly laid and couched work of silver
and gilt braiding, consisting of rosettes, plant motifs and stylised leaves covers the
entire dress. A band 3.1 cm in width and 35 cm in length of metallic file has been sown
onto the shoulders to hang down the dress front and back, embellished with strips of
brocade or brocade with rows of appligue work.

Womans, girls or boy's kaftan, 1 9th century Fig. 3 a, b

Turkey or the Balkans

lnv. No. MNW Szt 2772

In the National Museum sińce 1953

A festive coat similar in style to a kaftan without collar, adapted to fit the waist,
bell-shaped skirt with sleeves sown onto the collar linę, madę of plum-coloured
velvet, lined with a cotton fabric in a pink-red-green chequered pattern, sleeves lined
with a golden-coloured cotton fabric. The dress length is 1 05 cm, the skirt flarę width
is 290 cm, length of the sleeves 62 cm, sleeve width 30 cm, open at the front, buttons
with coral beads sown onto both sides. The sleeves, sown onto the shoulders to create
freely-falIing strips of cloth narrowing into a thin taper, were intended to serve only
a decorative purpose.

The dress at the lower part and the sleeves are embroidered with gold and siIver
threads to form a geometric-floral pattern. The entire dress and sleeves are bordered
with gold brocade and gilt braiding.

6. Popi Zora, Catalogue of the Exhibition of Greek Folk Art, Athens, 1977, no. cat. 89.

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