91Èȱ¬

This beautiful robe is a woman's dress, known as thob, and is made of a cotton and silk mixture striped in red, orange, green, yellow and black. It is an excellent example of the brilliant skill of the textile workers and embroiderers of Bethlehem and Beit Jala, who were renowned throughout Palestine for the quality of their work. The embroidered chest panel is made of over-lapping layers of silk material in different colours, and is sewn onto the dress. The main part of the embroidered design is in couched gilt and silk cords filled with a variety of stitches in multi-coloured silks.

The robe is part of The Southall Collection, a major collection of Palestinian Dress dating from around 1850-1930. It includes garments and accessories worn by nomadic Bedouin people as well as men, women and children living in Ramallah and Bethlehem. The collection was formed by Wilfred Francis Southall. An elder of the Society of Friends and manufacturing chemist in Birmingham, Southall and his friends formed a group which performed a series of hugely popular pageants and re-enactments of bible stories during the first half of the 20th century, using the collection for costumes and props.