Jolly, Anna; Mühlemann, Corinne (2023). Two Velvet Letter Pouches and their Role in Safavid Diplomacy. Textile Museum journal, 50, pp. 52-71. University of Texas Press
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The Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen holds two Iranian letter pouches on
loan from the Danish National Archives. Sewn from two differently patterned, cut, voided
velvets, these pouches are exquisite works of Safavid textile art. They were assumed to
carry a letter from Shah Sulayman I (r. 1666-1694) that was delivered to King Christian V of
Denmark (r. 1670-1699) in 1691. This article suggests instead that they originally contained
two letters from Shah Safi I (r. 1629-1642) addressed to Duke Frederick III of Schleswig Holstein-Gottorp (r. 1616-1659), and received by him in 1639. Our proposal is based on
handwritten inscriptions in ink on the inner linings of both pouches and a close study of the
contents and physical properties of the letters, which are preserved in the Danish National
Archives. A contemporaneous travel account of the Gottorp embassy to lsfahan by Adam
Olearius and other archival documentation offer further support to this hypothesis. The link
to these letters provides a new terminus ante quem for the dating of the velvet fabrics of
these pouches to before 1637. By placing the two letter pouches in the context of diplomatic
exchange between the Safavid court and a European court, this case study highlights the
role luxury textiles played in seventeenth-century Iranian diplomacy.
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