Romanian man's shirt with hand embroidered decoration, late 20th century (TRC 2022.0197).
As many readers will know we have been given a large collection of mainly Hungarian textiles and garments that is currently in Paris. The transport of the collection was delayed slightly, but it is now scheduled for the 20th February. In the meantime, Augusta de Gunzbourg, who is looking after the organization, transportation and cataloguing of the collection, has recently been to Paris to discuss the collection, its background, and indeed its future. See also a previous TRC blog of 25 November 2021: Citizen culture at work: The textiles are coming to Leiden.
Detail A of TRC 2022.0197.Augusta came back to Leiden with some items from the collection, including several Hungarian blouses as well as a Romanian men's shirt (above). The blouses and the shirt, plus other items, are now online (TRC 2022.0190 - TRC 2022.0202)
Another TRC volunteer, Nelleke Ganzevoort, fell for the Romanian shirt and could not wait to analyse it and make a chart of the design. Her initial report and chart are given below:
Several garments have just come from Paris as part of a much larger donation. One of the pieces is this lovely embroidered man's shirt (TRC 2022.0197). It is soberly decorated in broad bands of cross stitch in a heart-shaped geometric pattern, which is worked mostly in a dark grey cotton thread.
The centre's small brownish-red heart shapes are filled with satin stitch in brown, pink and white (Detail A). The collar is worked entirely in satin stitch (Detail B). All of the stitching is very fine. The bands at the wrists are 55 stitches across, on 5.8 cm, which has resulted in nearly ten stitches per centimetre (Detail C).
Detail B of TRC 2022.0197.The shirt has a label pinned to it that states: “Romania – 1989 – Suceava” and it would seem that the shirt was bought in the historic city of Suceava, in northeastern Romania, and dates to 1989 or earlier. Of course that does not necessarily mean it was made in Suceava.
Detail C of TRC 2022.0197.'I have been searching the internet and my own library for parallels, but I have not yet been able to find any parallels.
Intriguingly, I have just found a woman’s blouse with description on the website of the University of Rhode Island and the garment is described as being typical for Suceava, but it seems very different to me! Anybody out there who knows of a better parallels ? Please send us an e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Nelleke Ganzevoort, 9 February 2022
PS More details about the collection, single and groups of objects will be published over the next few months. It will also be possible to see some of the garments during the cataloguing process should you be in Leiden (by appointment only).
Pattern for the man's shirt, TRC 2022.0197. Click on the chart for a PdF file.
