Ottoman Metal-Thread Panel with the Tughra of Abdul Hamid II

A late nineteenth-century Ottoman embroidered panel from a professional metropolitan workshop, worked in gilt vermeil and silver over a hand-spun silk ground. At its center is the imperial tughra of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876–1909), flanked by architectural roundels, cypress trees, and mirrored (aynalı) calligraphy cartouches, a denser iconographic program than is usual in domestic embroideries of the period.

The attribution to Abdul Hamid II rests on the vertical flourish el-Gāzī (الغازي), "The Victorious," set to the right of the monogram; he adopted the title Gazi after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. A secondary inner band repeats the invocation 'Azza Naṣruhu (عز نصره), "May his victory be powerful," a phrase shared by several late Ottoman rulers. Four roundels depict domed imperial mosques with arched window registers and twin minarets complete with balconies (şerefe), each flanked by cypress trees (servi), the Ottoman emblem of eternity. The corners hold acanthus-lobed cartouches of precisely mirrored calligraphy, and a continuous outer frame repeats Sultān (سلطان) with protective scriptural abbreviations.

The technique is heavy structural metallic couching: flat gilt-silver lamé ribbon bound down with ultra-fine silk at roughly three to four attachments per millimeter, with the script itself raised in coiled metallic wire (tırtıl). Primary calligraphic strokes measure 10–12 mm across. The perimeter carries a hand-knotted dark crocheted lace fringe (oya) shot with gold metallic thread.

The panel is currently tensioned flat on a rigid foam-board substrate and sealed under clear protective wrap, ready for archival framing, and ships flat with the wrapping intact.