embroidered & quilted, 1800s, Persian Plain weave cotton embroidered with silk in straight stitches, running [or back?] and chain stitch, padded and quilted, backed with resist and block printed plain weave cotton and faced with woven silk. White ground with an outer border on four sides containing a leafy green meander in chain stitch bearing dark red trefoil flowers. The main border is on three sides and has outward facing isolated floral sprigs with red roots and 3 red carnations outlined with green,. The motif in each corner has been placed on the diagonal. The same design as the outer border forms three sides of the central panel. Darker green has been used in the lower part of both the main and the inner borders. The main border is quilted with white silk in a scale design. The central section is decorated with a lobed niche formed by green lines making a little red spot at the top. The spandrels have a green line forming an ogival lattice, which does not touch the border on the left hand side; each ogee contains a light green bud outlined with red. At the top of the niche is a roundel with an embroidered inscription in green on the white cotton ground. The niche is quilted with the scale design using white thread. It is embroidered with widely spaced offset bands with a snowdrop-like flower in different shades of green [darker at the bottom] all outlined with red and all drooping to the left. In the upper part of the niche are 4 badly mis-shapen birds: 2 red ones where the arch begins and 2 in light green around the bottom of the roundel; there is something very odd either side of the roundel. Here there is a block printed motif, to be embroidered, but it does not look bird-like. A bird's head has been embroidered in red on the left and on the right there are 3 faded pink areas and a white outline. Backing: light yellow cotton printed with offset rows of a floral motif: dark leaves at the base, white flower with coloured details on the left, red flower on the right and lots of small red buds above. Facing: bias cut black silk. There are 6 green cotton plain weave loops attached along the upper edge for display purposes.